An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009

We analyze China's rapid economic development in the context of the dualistic development theory. Over the period 1965–2009, we find that China's economic growth is mainly attributable to the development of the non-agricultural (industrial and service) sector, driven by rapid labor migrati...

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Main Authors: Ercolani, Marco G., Wei, Zheng
Format: Article
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press 2011
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47381/
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author Ercolani, Marco G.
Wei, Zheng
author_facet Ercolani, Marco G.
Wei, Zheng
author_sort Ercolani, Marco G.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We analyze China's rapid economic development in the context of the dualistic development theory. Over the period 1965–2009, we find that China's economic growth is mainly attributable to the development of the non-agricultural (industrial and service) sector, driven by rapid labor migration and capital accumulation. We find that the sectoral reallocation of labor plays a significant role in promoting China's economic growth. Further, we find that the marginal productivity of agricultural labor stopped stagnating in 1978, which indicates that China entered quickly into phase two of economic development with the initiation of market reforms. Moreover, by 2009, the marginal productivity of labor has likely exceeded the institutional wage, as defined by the initially low average labor productivity, indicating that China may be now in the process of entering phase three of economic development.
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spelling nottingham-473812020-05-04T16:31:24Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47381/ An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009 Ercolani, Marco G. Wei, Zheng We analyze China's rapid economic development in the context of the dualistic development theory. Over the period 1965–2009, we find that China's economic growth is mainly attributable to the development of the non-agricultural (industrial and service) sector, driven by rapid labor migration and capital accumulation. We find that the sectoral reallocation of labor plays a significant role in promoting China's economic growth. Further, we find that the marginal productivity of agricultural labor stopped stagnating in 1978, which indicates that China entered quickly into phase two of economic development with the initiation of market reforms. Moreover, by 2009, the marginal productivity of labor has likely exceeded the institutional wage, as defined by the initially low average labor productivity, indicating that China may be now in the process of entering phase three of economic development. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press 2011-10-30 Article PeerReviewed Ercolani, Marco G. and Wei, Zheng (2011) An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009. Asian Economic Papers, 10 (3). pp. 1-29. ISSN 1535-3516 http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/ASEP_a_00108 doi:10.1162/ASEP_a_00108 doi:10.1162/ASEP_a_00108
spellingShingle Ercolani, Marco G.
Wei, Zheng
An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009
title An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009
title_full An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009
title_fullStr An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009
title_full_unstemmed An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009
title_short An empirical analysis of China's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009
title_sort empirical analysis of china's dualistic economic development: 1965-2009
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47381/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47381/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47381/