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Chapter 9
Bianzhong – a percussion instrument in ancient China
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9. A Multiregional
Economic Comparison
9.1 China’s statistical systems
9.2 Macroeconomic
performance
9.3 Real living standards
9.4 Regional economic
disparity
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Keywords:
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•
•
•
•
•
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System of National Accounts (SNA),
material product system (MPS),
purchasing power parity (PPP),
living standard,
Engel's Law,
rural-urban divide,
regional disparity
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9.1 China’s statistical
systems
9.1.1 Material Product System (MPS)
9.1.2 System of National Account (SNA)
9.1.3 Credibility of Chinese statistics
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Figure 9.1 Which countries match the GDP per capita of Chinese
provinces?
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Notes: to Figure 9.1
(1) The equivalents include: Albania=Hebei, Algeria=Jilin,
Angola=Hubei, Armenia=Sichuan, Azerbaijan=Zhejiang,
Belarus=Jiangsu, Belarus=Jiangsu, Congo (Brazzaville)
=Tibet, Costa Rica=Liaoning, Cuba=Fujian, Egypt=
Xinjiang, El Salvador=Henan, El Salvador=Hunan,
Guatemala=Ningxia, Guyana=Jiangxi, Hungary=Tianjin,
India=Guizhou, Iraq=Gansu, Jordan=Anhui, Kazakhstan
=Guangdong, Mauritius=Chongqing, Mauritius=Shaanxi,
Namibia=Shanxi, Qatar=Macau, Saudi Arabia=Shanghai,
Singapore=Hong Kong, Slovakia=Beijing, South Africa
=Shandong, Swaziland=Guangxi, Turkmenistan=Hainan,
Turkmenistan=Qinghai, Ukraine=Heilongjiang, Vanuatu
=Yunnan.
(2) Figures are in purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars and
as of 2010.
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9.2 Macroeconomic
performance
9.2.1 Estimating China’s timeseries data
9.2.2 China’s interprovincial
differences
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Table 9.1 Various estimates of China’s GDP per capita, selected years
Year
NBS (2005)
Equation (9.2)
WPTc
Other sourcesd
RMB (yuan)a
US$a
RMB (yuan)b
PPP ($)
PPP ($)
1979
417
268
455
724
1000
1986
956
277
974
1293
2440
1988
1355
364
1406
1489
2472
1990
1634
342
1668
1678
1031; 2140
1991
1992
1993
1994
1879
2287
2939
3923
353
415
510
455
1895
2288
2753
1798
1983
2131
2453
1680
1600
2120
2510
(a): All are measured at current prices (the exchanges rates of RMB yuan to US dollar
are shown in Figure 12.1). (b): Estimated by author at current prices. (c): Penn World
Table (PWT) v6.2 (Heston et al., 2006) at constant prices. (d): World Bank (1996, p.
21) and Zheng (1996, p. 1).
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Table 9.2 Provincial ranks by per capita GDP, selected years
Province
Anhui
Beijing
Chongqing
Fujian
Gansu
Guangdong
Guangxi
Guizhou
Hainan
Hebei
Heilongjiang
Henan
Hubei
Hunan
Inner
Mongolia
Jiangsu
Jiangxi
Jilin
Liaoning
Ningxia
Qinghai
1952a
22
3
NP
14
16
18
27
29
NP
9
4
23
20
21
7
1980
27
2
NP
20
16
18
28
29
NP
7
5
21
17
22
14
1990
24
2
NP
12
27
5
29
30
15
17
8
28
13
20
18
2000
24
2
19
7
30
5
29
31
15
11
10
18
13
17
16
2010
25
2
18
9
30
6
26
31
22
12
14
15
13
20
7
13
11
8
5
10
15
10
24
6
4a
19
9
7
23
10
4
19
14
6
25
14
8
22
20
5
27
11
9
19
23
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Table 9.2 (cont’d)
Province
1952a
1980
1990
2000
2010
Shaanxi
24
12
21
27
17
Shandong
19
13
11
9
8
Shanghai
1
1
1
1
1
Shanxi
17
15
16
21
16
Sichuan
28
26
26
23
24
Tianjin
2
3
3
3
3
Tibet
25b
23b
22
26
28
Xinjiang
6
11
9
12
21
Yunnan
26
25
25
28
29
Zhejiang
12
8
6
4
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Notes:
(1) Per capita GDP data are measured at current prices;
(2) “NP” denotes “not a province for the year”.
(a) Per capita GDP is estimated based on the data of national
income (SSB, 1990) and Equation 9.2 of Section 9.2.
(b) Per capita GDP is estimated by the author based on the
Tibet/Yunnan ratio of national incomes (1.127) and Yunnan’s
GDP data.
Sources: SSB (1986, 1991) and NBS (2001; 2011) except for (a)
and (b).
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(1) 1952–1980 (29 provinces):
• 15 provinces (Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning,
Jilin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan,
Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, and
Qinghai) ranked higher than before;
• ten provinces (Tianjin, Inner Mongolia,
Heilongjiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan,
Guangxi, Ningxia, and Xinjiang) ranked lower
than before; and
• four provinces (Shanghai, Guangdong,
Guizhou, and Gansu) remained unchanged.
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(2) 1980–1990 (29 provinces, with
the exclusion of Hainan):
• ten provinces (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian,
Shandong, Hubei, Guangdong, Yunnan, Tibet,
and Xinjiang) ranked higher than before;
• 11 provinces (Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia,
Jilin, Heilongjiang, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou,
Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai) ranked lower
than before; and
• eight provinces (Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning,
Shanghai, Jiangxi, Henan, Yunnan, and Ningxia)
remained unchanged.
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(3) 1990–2000 (30 provinces, with
the exclusion of Chongqing):
• nine provinces (Fujian, Hebei, Henan, Hunan,
Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan,
and Zhejiang) ranked higher than before;
• 13 provinces (Gansu, Guizhou, Heilongjiang,
Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shanxi,
Shaanxi, Tibet, Yunnan, and Xinjiang) ranked
lower than before; and
• eight provinces (Anhui, Beijing, Guangdong,
Guangxi, Hianan, Hubei, Shanghai, and Tianjin)
remained unchanged.
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(4) 2000–2010 (31 provinces):
• ten provinces (Chongqing, Jiangsu, Shandong,
Guangxi, Henan, Jilin, Ningxia, Shanxi, Inner
Mongolia, and Shaanxi) ranked higher than
before;
• 14 provinces (Xinjiang, Hainan, Heilongjiang,
Hunan, Qinghai, Fujian, Jiangxi, Tibet, Anhui,
Guangdong, Hebei, Liaoning, Sichuan, and
Yunnan;) ranked lower than before; and
• seven provinces (Beijing, Gansu, Guizhou,
Hubei, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Zhejiang)
remained unchanged.
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9.3 Real living standard
9.3.1 General situation
9.3.2 Rural-urban disparity
9.3.3 Spatial differences of
purchasing power
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Source: IMF.
Figure 9.2 China’s purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion rates, 19802010
16
Source: NBS, various years.
Figure 9.3 China’s rural-urban income gaps
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Source: NBS, various years.
Figure 9.4 The Engle coefficients of China’s urban and rural households, 1978-2010
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Spatial differences of purchasing power:
• 1 kg of chicken costs ¥12.06 in Jiangxi but ¥32.00 in
Shanghai;
• 1 kg of fish costs ¥10.04 in Jiangxi but ¥20.10 in Tibet;
• 1 kg of pork costs ¥21.76 in Xinjiang but ¥32.00 in Beijing;
• 1 kg of eggs costs ¥6.8 in Shanghai but ¥10.96 in Hainan;
• 1 kg of milk costs only ¥3.78 in Xinjiang but ¥17.4 in
Shanghai;
• 1 kg of apples costs only ¥4.12 in Henan but ¥13.16 in
Chongqing;
• 1 kg of oranges costs only ¥3.04 in Henan but ¥7.00 in
Qinghai and Tibet;
• 1 kg of bananas costs only ¥2.98 in Jiangxi but ¥7.00 in
Chongqing.
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Table 9.3 Life expectancy and infant mortality rates, selected
economies
Infant mortality rate
Country
Life expectancy (years)
(‰)
1980
2007
1980
2007
China
68
72.88
42
21.16
Australia
74
80.62
11
4.51
Hong Kong
74
81.68
11
2.93
Japan
76
82.20
8
2.80
South Korea
67
79.10
26
5.94
Malaysia
67
72.76
30
16.39
New Zealand
73
78.96
13
4.99
Singapore
71
81.80
12
2.30
Sri Lanka
68
74.80
34
19.01
World average
61
65.82
67
42.65
Sources: Wang (2003, p. 55) and CIA (2008).
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9.4 Regional economic
disparity
9.4.1 Literature review
9.4.2 Regional inequality index
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Table 9.4 Gaps between the top five and bottom five provinces (in per
capita GDP, yuan)
GDP per capita
Panel A: All provinces
Top five (yuan)
Bottom five (yuan)
Absolute gap (yuan)
Ratio of top five to bottom five
1952
1980
1990
2000
2010
397
81
315
4.87
1766
176
1590
10.04
3833
979
2854
3.92
20129
3991
16138
5.04
61956
15548
46407
3.98
Top five (yuan)
226
502
Bottom five (yuan)
81
176
Absolute gap (yuan)
144
326
Ratio of top five to bottom five
2.77
2.85
Source: As for Table 9.2; calculated by author.
2136
979
1157
2.18
11981
3991
7990
3.00
49126
15548
33577
3.16
Panel B: Excluding Beijing,
Shanghai and Tianjin
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Figure 9.5 The coefficients of variation (CV) of per capita GDP among
provinces
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China had a per capita GDP ratio of more than 12 for
the richest (Shanghai) to the poorest (Guizhou) at the
end of 1990s. This figure is only lower than Indonesia
(20.8 in 1983), but much higher than many other
countries, such as:
• the former Yugoslavia (7.8 in 1988),
• India (3.26 in 1980),
• Netherlands (2.69 in 1988),
• Italy (2.34 in 1988),
• Canada (2.30 in 1988),
• Spain (2.23 in 1988),
• France (2.15 in 1988),
• West Germany (1.93 in 1988),
• Greece (1.63 in 1988),
• UK (1.63 in 1988),
• South Korea (1.53 in 1985),
• Japan (1.47 in 1981),
• USA (1.43 in 1983; 2.31 in 2009) and
• Australia (1.13 in 1978).
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Case study 7
Similar initial conditions, varied
results
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Chapter conclusion:
Since the late 1970s, the Chinese economy has
demonstrated an increasing asymmetry between different
regions and resulted in a series of regional economic
problems. Due to the application of different statistical
systems in the pre- and post-reform periods as well as the
unavailability of statistical data in some provinces, a
complete multiregional comparison of the Chinese
economy is extremely difficult and, to some extent,
meaningless. Using the best data and the regression
approach, we try to estimate a set of time-series data on
GDP for all provinces, on which the multiregional
comparison of the Chinese economy is based. Finally,
regional economic disparity indexes are computed for the
past decades. Not surprisingly, China’s interregional
economic differences have been posing considerable
challenges to its societal harmony…
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Suggested reading
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