Regional deregulation and entrepreneurial growth in China's transition economy

Despite a less favourable national institutional environment, the private entrepreneurial sector has developed rapidly in China's transition economy. To resolve this puzzle, this study argues that regional deregulation plays a significant role in China's entrepreneurial growth because it stimulates free markets and lifts predatory and discriminatory regulatory policies affecting entrepreneurship. I use provincial-level panel data (1998–2003) for hypothesis testing. The results, based on fixed effects estimation, suggest that deregulation indeed has a significantly positive effect on entrepreneurial growth within regions. In addition, this effect is found to be stronger in earlier years, as well as among less developed, inland regions.