Firm Size, Technical Efficiency and Productivity Growth in Chinese Industry

Main author: Cheng, Yuk-Shing
Other authors: Lo, Dic
Format: Monographs and Working Papers           
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Summary: Since the mid-1990s, China’s state leadership has adopted a policy of nurturing the competitiveness of large state-owned industrial enterprises. The implications of this policy have been a matter of debate in the literature. This paper seeks to provide some useful input into the debate. With a view of investigating into the potential of long-term development of large enterprises, we estimate the “sequential production technology” in computing the Malmquist productivity index for various size-groups of enterprises in Chinese industry. Our findings indicate that large enterprises did register the fastest productivity growth and improvement in technical efficiency in the 1994-97 period. It thus appears that large-scale, mainly state-owned Chinese enterprises have exhibited the potential of making noticeable improvements and the relevant state policy does have its justification.
Other authors: Lo, Dic
Language: English
Published: SOAS Department of Economics Working Paper Series; No. 144 2004