This research examines the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Chinese economic growth Foreign investment to China mainly coming from the Asian countries has been centered on 2nd and 3rd industries such as manufacturing, utilities, real estate,...
This research examines the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Chinese economic growth Foreign investment to China mainly coming from the Asian countries has been centered on 2nd and 3rd industries such as manufacturing, utilities, real estate, and has been geographically concentrated on the eastern coastal area. Foreign investment began to make a significant and increasingly regular impact on Chinese economic growth from 1992 onward. For example, FDl to China has contributed to the increase of 112% in fixed capital formation, 20.7% of industrial output and 51.8% of volume of trade. Given that net exports contributed to about 21% to Chinese economic growth in 2001, FDl is understood to contribute directly to economic growth through capital formation rather than trade.
This study has found several features from the empirical study that takes into account these facts First, labor input is found to have only a slight role to Chinese provincial economic growth, and in some provinces even takes on a negative role. The main reason for this minor role of labor input in spite of its higher distribution rate than those of domestic capital and foreign capital is that employment has rather decreased despite of rapid each provincial economic growth Employment has been decreasing in many provinces with the continuous rationalization process of enterprise (specially state owned enterprises) despite the steady increase in the demand for labor as a result of new investment and foreign investment businesses in China.
Second, Chinese economic growth is mainly dependent on capital accumulation. The high economic growth rate has induced domestic capital accumulation, but foreign capital accumulation has not been that high. However, high economic growth has greatly encouraged the increase in the contribution rate of domestic capital as well as foreign capital formation. This relation between economic growth and capital accumulation signals that foreign capital inflow has assumed a major role in Chinese economic growth.
Third, the role of total factor productivity (TFP) growth has been impressive in some provincial Chinese economies. However, some regions with higher TFP growth rate did not achieved high economic growth.
Because TFP is composed of various factors, we divided it into four parts: technological change, economies of scale, technical efficiency change and allocative inefficiency. Each is examined and interpreted appropriately.
Generally provinces that achieved higher economic growth rate had only a slightly higher TFP change Despite the high economic growth, some provinces record negative TFP growth because decreasing scale economies and increasing allocative inefficiencies countervailed technological change and efficiency enlargement Specifically, some areas such as Shanghai and Peking recorded lower TFP growth due to the complex factor of allocative inefficiency, unmeasurable and unexplained factors, as well as decreases m scale economies arising from government's intervention 10 the process of economic development: All in spite of high economic growth rates, high domestic and foreign capital accumulation.
The areas that have higher economic growth rates have lower technical efficiency change The marginal change of technical efficiency in these areas decreases because already high technical efficiency has been achieved in these areas, which have also experienced continuous economic growth. However, Chinese economic growth was possible due to the rapid capital accumulation-areas with high capital accumulation achieved high economic growth and attained much efficiency improvements. Reflecting this, the areas that have higher stock of domestic and foreign capital tends to also have higher technical efficiency level.
Broadly speaking, Chinese provinces that accomplished higher economic growth achieved higher technological change. Higher economic growth was induced by higher capital accumulation as well as hi