By Jia Shen, Department of Development Strategy and Regional Economy, DRC

Research Report No 133, 2015 (Total 4818)

Abstract:

This paper analyzes changes of disparities in different regions' per capita output, regional labor productivity, regional productivity of three industries, and regional employment proportions in terms of three industries. Among these indicators, regional per capital output presents a "reversed-N" trajectory of "a fall followed by a rise which heralded another fall", during which 1991 and 2001 marked both phased shifts. Convergence of regional productivity within industries and that of regional employment structure occurred alternatively, both exerting significant impacts on evolvement of regional disparities. Yet currently China's regional gaps in productivity within industries and employment mix remain large. To narrow regional differences in the future, it is imperative to accelerate employment mix adjustment in backward areas and enable those areas to catch up in agricultural productivity, further enhance efficiency in cross-region resource allocation in the industrial and service sectors, and focus on the backward regions long disadvantaged in the regional development pattern.