The form of the production function for the Chinese regional economy

Abstract

This paper is mainly concerned with estimating appropriate production functions for the Chinese economy using provincial data, 1973–89. It is hoped that the results obtained would help to assess the variabilities in the scale elasticity, elasticity of substitution as technical progress over time. It is hoped also that the results obtained would help to assess the roles of economies of scale, elasticity of substitution and technical progress in Chinese economic growth. The outline ofthe paper is as follows:in Section IIthe basic model used for estimation purposes is discussed. Section III discusses the estimation procedures used, results obtained and assesses their technical and economic implications. Finally, Section IV summarizes the main conclusions to be drawn from the paper.