Explaining Spatial Convergence of China's Industrial Productivity

Paul Duo Deng, Gary H. Jefferson

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This article investigates the conditions that may auger a reversal of China's increasingly unequal levels of regional industrial productivity during China's first two decades of economic reform. Using international and Chinese firm and industry data over the period 1995–2004, we estimate a productivity growth–technology gap reaction function. We find that as China's coastal industry has closed the technology gap with the international frontier, labour productivity growth in the coastal region has begun to slow in relation to the interior. This may serve as an early indicator of China's initial movement towards reversing growth in spatial income inequality.
Original languageEnglish
JournalOxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
Volume73
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)818-832
ISSN0305-9049
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011

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