Productivity growth of China in national and regional level from 1952 to 1995

According to the Solow model, capital and output converge to a steady state and only grow at a constant growth rate in the long run. An economy can only grow faster in the long run when there is technological progress, so the latter is very important to economic growth. Following the beginning of reform, China and its provinces grew very fast. Were labor growth and capital growth the sole two causes of high economic growth or was technological progress also one of the causes? In order to answer this, I estimate total factor productivity growth as a measure of technological progress. I also estimate each province’s total factor productivity growth because there were great differences in the economic growth of different provinces. Then I calculate the percentage contribution of each factor input and use these to analyze what the cause of high economic growth was. I use data from 1952 to 1995 because this allows me to compare economic performance before and after the period of reform. Next, I use my estimations of total factor productivity growth to test whether there was conditional convergence across China’s provinces