Study On The Relative Factors Of Chinese Regional Total Factor Productivity Growth

Total Factor Productivity (TFP) reflects the overall production efficiency ofeconomies within a certain period of time. TFP growth improves the quality ofregional economic development. The transformation of economic growth mode,which has been promoted by Chinese government since the1990s, has reached acrucial stage in recent years. In view of this, this study on the relative factors ofChinese regional TFP growth has great theoretical and practical significance forfurther development of Chinese economy.This paper explores the relative factors of Chinese regional TFP growth. Firstly,this paper explains the theoretical connotation of TFP and TFP growth, introduces thetheories and methods of TFP growth estimation, and analyzes the function mechanismof the relative factors of Chinese regional TFP growth. Secondly, this paper estimatesthe TFP growth of30provincial-level regions of mainland China from1979to2012via Malmquist-DEA Method, decomposes TFP growth into technological progressand technical efficiency growth, and then furtherly decomposes technical efficiencygrowth into pure technical efficiency growth and scale efficiency growth. On thisbasis, this paper respectively analyzes the evolution trend of TFP growth and TFPconstitution in Eastern Region, Northeast Region, Central Region and Western Region.According to the results, technological progress has gradually become the main partof TFP growth since the Reform and Opening Up, while scale efficiency growth hasprogressively become the main part of technical efficiency growth during this period.Thirdly, this paper analyzes the influences of the relative factors of Chinese regionalTFP growth with a panel data of30provincial-level regions of mainland China from1999to2012via econometric regression analysis. According to the results, all ofurbanization, export growth and import growth have significant promoting influenceson Chinese regional TFP growth. Urbanization has more apparent influences on theTFP growth of Eastern Region and Western Region, export growth plays a moreimportant role during the process of TFP growth in Central Region and WesternRegion, while import growth has a more significant impact on the TFP growth ofCentral Region. Fourthly, based on the results of theoretical study and empiricalanalysis, this paper suggest that local governments enhance the capability of regional R&D activities, increase the efficiency of technological achievements application,improve the quality of unbanization, implement economic opening policies, acceleratethe upgrading of industrial structure, and encourage the coordinated development ofbasic education and vocational education, so as to furtherly promote Chinese regionalTFP growth.This paper mainly innovates in three aspects. Firthly, this paper estimates the TFPgrowth of30provincial-level regions of mainland China from1979to2012viaMalmquist-DEA Method, decomposes TFP growth into technological progress andtechnical efficiency growth, and then furtherly decomposes technical efficiencygrowth into pure technical efficiency growth and scale efficiency growth, thus hasintegrallty reflected Chinese regional evolution trend of TFP growth and TFPconstitution. Secondly, this paper elaborates the function mechanism of the variousrelative factors of Chinese regional TFP growth, and examine the influences of thefactores via econometric regression analysis, thus has comprehensively explored therelative factors of Chinese regional TFP growth. Thirdly, this paper introduces areadummy variables of Eastern Region, Northeast Region and Western Region intoeconometric regression model, so as to explore Chinese inter-regional TFP growthdifferences during the process of econometric regression analysis.