Public infrastructure as a determinant of productive performance in China

The issue of income inequality in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has attracted world‐wide attention, leading to a sizable literature. This paper attempts to provide a nonexhaustive literature review of the PRC's inequality trends and determinants, and suggested government interventions. It discusses profiles of income inequality along three dimensions: interhousehold disparity, regional divides, and urban–rural gaps. This is followed by an exploration of the driving forces behind rising inequality, including the notorious hukou system, policy biases, location or geographic factors, globalization, and education. Finally, the paper summarizes and proposes government interventions for containing or reducing income inequality in the PRC. Important areas for future research are also suggested in the final section of the paper.

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“…, ). Such public infrastructure investments are effective in reducing regional disparities (Vijverberg et al ., ). Zou et al .…”

Section: Suggested Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Income Inequality in the People's Republic of China: Trends, Determinants, and Proposed Remedies

Wang

Wan

Yang

2014

Journal of Economic Surveys

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“…Using Chinese provincial level data, few studies have examined the contribution of the aggregate public infrastructure to the productive performance [12], the spatial spillover effects of transport infrastructure [13] [14] as well as the poverty reduction effect [15]. Demurger [16] Thus, the analysis is carried out using data from prefecture-level city, which includes both the urban and rural administrative areas.…”

Section: Cost Function With Maximum Likelihood Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Empirical evidence on the estimates of output elasticity of public/transport infrastructure. [12] Sub-national (Provincial) Panel data…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterogeneous Economic Impacts of Transportation Features on Prefecture-Level Chinese Cities

Agbelie¹,

Yang²,

Salike³

2017

TEL

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The present paper examines the heterogeneous economic impacts of transportation characteristics, with a consideration of spatial heterogeneity, across Chinese prefecture-level cities. Using data from 237 Chinese cities from 2000 to 2012, a random-parameters model is applied to account for the heterogeneity across these cities. The estimation results reveal significant variability across cities, with the computed impacts (elasticity values) of transportation-related features (highway and railway freight volumes, highway passenger volume, urbanization rate, public transit, paved roads, and highway congestion rate) varying significantly across cities. The impacts are mostly positive, except for highway congestion rate. A 1% increase in a city's highway and railway freight volumes would increase the city's gross product per capita from 0.0001% to 0.0972% and 0.0001% to 0.0254% across cities in China, respectively. While a 1% increase in highway congestion rate would decrease the city's gross product per capita by an average of 0.031%.

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“…Studies finding supportive evidence can be dated back to Aschauer (1989a,b), who argues that infrastructure provides highly valuable services to the private sector and thus improves its marginal productivity. Numerous studies have attempted to examine the contribution of public infrastructure to productivity in China (Démurger, ; Fan and Zhang, ; Vijverberg et al, ). For instance, Fan and Zhang () point out that governmental investment in roads, electricity, education and other public investment in rural areas has contributed to the rapid growth in China's agricultural and rural non‐agricultural production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Search of Fiscal Interactions: A Spatial Analysis ofChinese Provincial Infrastructure Spending

Zheng

Feng

et al. 2015

Review Development Economics

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Using a dataset for 31 Chinese provinces from 1998 to 2006, this paper provides a spatial Durbin panel analysis to test for fiscal interactions among China's provinces in their public spending on infrastructure. We find significant positive interactions across Chinese provincial governments.Further analysis attempting to distinguish between the possible sources of such fiscal interactions reveals evidence of expenditure competition instead of yardstick competition.JEL classification: H54, H7, C23

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Public infrastructure as a determinant of productive performance in China

Abstract: Public infrastructure, Labor productivity, China, H54, O47, R11,

Cited by 20 publications

References 32 publications

Income Inequality in the People's Republic of China: Trends, Determinants, and Proposed Remedies

Income Inequality in the People's Republic of China: Trends, Determinants, and Proposed Remedies

Heterogeneous Economic Impacts of Transportation Features on Prefecture-Level Chinese Cities

In Search of Fiscal Interactions: A Spatial Analysis ofChinese Provincial Infrastructure Spending

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