Measuring Chinese Productivity Growth, 1952-2005

Abstract

This paper has two objectives. (i) Assess the availability and the quality of the data series necessary to construct productivity measures for the Chinese economy. (ii) Produce a set of productivity statistics that can be integrated into the existing set of OECD productivity indicators and that can be updated later on. The paper in three sections examines the availability and quality of output, labor, and capital data. A further section discusses and calculates a range of productivity measures. The final section offers some thoughts on the future calculation of productivity measures for China.

Keywords: Labor productivity, unit labor costs, total factor productivity, GDP, value added, capital, labor, hours worked, economic census, data quality, effective investment, industry classification

JEL Classification: E01, O4, O5, E22, J30, C82, P24