[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/randje/v52y2021i4p884-916.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Privatization and productivity in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yuyu Chen
  • Mitsuru Igami
  • Masayuki Sawada
  • Mo Xiao
Abstract
We study how ownership affects productivity in the context of China's privatization of state‐owned enterprises (SOEs). Its true impact remains unclear and controversial, partly because the government selectively privatized or liquidated nonperforming SOEs. To address this selection problem, we augment the Gandhi–Navarro–Rivers nonparametric production function to incorporate endogenous ownership changes. Results suggest private firms are 53% more productive than SOEs on average, but the benefits of privatization take several years to fully materialize. This productivity gap is smaller among larger firms and in economically more liberal times and places; it is larger in consumer‐facing and high‐tech industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuyu Chen & Mitsuru Igami & Masayuki Sawada & Mo Xiao, 2021. "Privatization and productivity in China," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(4), pages 884-916, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:randje:v:52:y:2021:i:4:p:884-916
    DOI: 10.1111/1756-2171.12395
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1756-2171.12395
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1756-2171.12395?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrei Shleifer, 1998. "State versus Private Ownership," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 133-150, Fall.
    2. Jan De Loecker, 2011. "Product Differentiation, Multiproduct Firms, and Estimating the Impact of Trade Liberalization on Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(5), pages 1407-1451, September.
    3. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Zheng (Michael) Song, 2015. "Grasp the Large, Let Go of the Small: The Transformation of the State Sector in China," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 50(1 (Spring), pages 295-366.
    4. Jan De Loecker, 2013. "Detecting Learning by Exporting," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 1-21, August.
    5. Van Reenen, John & Bloom, Nicholas & Sadun, Raffaella, 2016. "Management as a Technology," CEPR Discussion Papers 11312, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Serguey Braguinsky & Atsushi Ohyama & Tetsuji Okazaki & Chad Syverson, 2015. "Acquisitions, Productivity, and Profitability: Evidence from the Japanese Cotton Spinning Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(7), pages 2086-2119, July.
    7. Mark J Roberts & Daniel Yi Xu & Xiaoyan Fan & Shengxing Zhang, 2018. "The Role of Firm Factors in Demand, Cost, and Export Market Selection for Chinese Footwear Producers," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(4), pages 2429-2461.
    8. repec:fth:harver:1473 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Ackerberg, Daniel & Lanier Benkard, C. & Berry, Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 2007. "Econometric Tools for Analyzing Market Outcomes," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 63, Elsevier.
    10. Zhangkai Huang & Lixing Li & Guangrong Ma & Lixin Colin Xu, 2017. "Hayek, Local Information, and Commanding Heights: Decentralizing State-Owned Enterprises in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(8), pages 2455-2478, August.
    11. Wang, Jian & Wang, Xiao, 2015. "Benefits of foreign ownership: Evidence from foreign direct investment in China," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 325-338.
    12. Lucia Foster & John Haltiwanger & Chad Syverson, 2008. "Reallocation, Firm Turnover, and Efficiency: Selection on Productivity or Profitability?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 394-425, March.
    13. Granick, David, 1990. "Chinese State Enterprises," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226305882, December.
    14. Bai, Chong-En & Lu, Jiangyong & Tao, Zhigang, 2009. "How does privatization work in China?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 453-470, September.
    15. Nicholas Bloom & Mirko Draca & John Van Reenen, 2016. "Trade Induced Technical Change? The Impact of Chinese Imports on Innovation, IT and Productivity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(1), pages 87-117.
    16. Saul Estrin & Jan Hanousek & Evzen Kocenda & Jan Svejnar, 2009. "The Effects of Privatization and Ownership in Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 699-728, September.
    17. Kasahara, Hiroyuki & Rodrigue, Joel, 2008. "Does the use of imported intermediates increase productivity? Plant-level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 106-118, August.
    18. Jeffry M. Netter & William L. Megginson, 2001. "From State to Market: A Survey of Empirical Studies on Privatization," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 321-389, June.
    19. Lubomír Lízal & Jan Svejnar, 2002. "Investment, Credit Rationing, And The Soft Budget Constraint: Evidence From Czech Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 353-370, May.
    20. Mitsuru Igami & Jai Subrahmanyam, 2019. "Patent Statistics as an Innovation Indicator? Evidence from The Hard Disk Drive Industry," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 70(3), pages 308-330, September.
    21. Yuanzheng Cao & Yingyi Qian & Barry R. Weingast, 1999. "From federalism, Chinese style to privatization, Chinese style," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 7(1), pages 103-131, March.
    22. Daniel A. Ackerberg & Kevin Caves & Garth Frazer, 2015. "Identification Properties of Recent Production Function Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 2411-2451, November.
    23. Brandt, Loren & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Yifan, 2012. "Creative accounting or creative destruction? Firm-level productivity growth in Chinese manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 339-351.
    24. Amit Gandhi & Salvador Navarro & David A. Rivers, 2020. "On the Identification of Gross Output Production Functions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(8), pages 2973-3016.
    25. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    26. Park, Albert & Shen, Minggao, 2003. "Joint liability lending and the rise and fall of China's township and village enterprises," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 497-531, August.
    27. Mitsuru Igami & Jai Subrahmanyam, 2019. "Patent Statistics as an Innovation Indicator? Evidence from the Hard Disk Drive Industry," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 308-330, September.
    28. J. David Brown & John S. Earle & Almos Telegdy, 2006. "The Productivity Effects of Privatization: Longitudinal Estimates from Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(1), pages 61-99, February.
    29. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Zheng (Michael) Song, 2015. "Grasp the Large, Let Go of the Small: The Transformation of the State Sector in China," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 46(1 (Spring), pages 295-366.
    30. Xia, Jun & Li, Shaomin & Long, Cheryl, 2009. "The Transformation of Collectively Owned Enterprises and its Outcomes in China, 2001-05," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1651-1662, October.
    31. Lixin Colin Xu & Tian Zhu & Yi‐min Lin, 2005. "Politician control, agency problems and ownership reform," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 13(1), pages 1-24, January.
    32. Aghion, Philippe & Blanchard, Olivier & Burgess, Robin, 1994. "The behaviour of state firms in eastern Europe, pre-privatisation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1327-1349, June.
    33. Mariko Watanabe (ed.), 2014. "The Disintegration of Production," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15857.
    34. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: A Survey," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 287-343, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    35. Tian, Guoqiang, 2000. "Property Rights and the Nature of Chinese Collective Enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 247-268, June.
    36. I. Serdar Dinc & Nandini Gupta, 2011. "The Decision to Privatize: Finance and Politics," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 241-269, February.
    37. Gérard Roland, 2002. "The Political Economy of Transition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 29-50, Winter.
    38. Daniel Yi Xu & Mark Roberts, 2012. "A Structural Model of Dmand, Cost, and Export Market Selection for Chinese Footwear Producers," 2012 Meeting Papers 294, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    39. Gupta, Nandini & Ham, Jhon C. & Svejnar, Jan, 2008. "Priorities and sequencing in privatization: Evidence from Czech firm panel data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 183-208, February.
    40. Ulrich Doraszelski & Jordi Jaumandreu, 2013. "R&D and Productivity: Estimating Endogenous Productivity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(4), pages 1338-1383.
    41. J. David Brown & John S. Earle & Almos Telegdy, "undated". "The Productivity Effects of Privatization: Longitudnal Estimates for Hungary, romania, Russia, and Ukraine," Upjohn Working Papers jse20063, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Shuang & Wang, Wenzhi & Zhou, Liying, 2024. "Nonstate capital participation and innovation in state-owned enterprises: Scale, structure and quality," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    2. Paul Schrimpf & Michio Suzuki & Hiroyuki Kasahara, 2015. "Identification and Estimation of Production Function with Unobserved Heterogeneity," 2015 Meeting Papers 924, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Huang, Zhangkai & Liu, Jinyu & Ma, Guangrong & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2024. "Political determinants of privatizations in China: A natural experiment based on politician career concerns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    4. Mauro Caselli & Arpita Chatterjee & Shengyu Li, 2023. "Productivity and Quality of Multi-product Firms," Discussion Papers 2023-10, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    5. Chuyuan Zhang & Sang‐Ho Lee, 2023. "Entry decision of a vertically integrated foreign firm with downstream subsidization and upstream privatization," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(1), pages 273-299, March.
    6. Yoonseok Lee & Mary E. Lovely & Hoang Pham, 2023. "Dynamic and non‐neutral productivity effects of foreign ownership: A nonparametric approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 24-48, January.
    7. Wang, Chang & Guo, Yue & Yang, Yu & Chen, Shiyi, 2022. "The environmental benefits of electricity industry restructuring in China: Ownership mixing vs. vertical unbundling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    8. Huobao Xie & Weiwei Yang & Qingyuan Li, 2022. "Can New Private Shareholders Help Improve SOEs' Total Factor Productivity? Evidence from the Chinese Listed SOEs," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 23(1), pages 23-62, May.
    9. Liu, Rui & Zheng, Linhao & Chen, Zheang & Cheng, Mengyao & Ren, Yuzhuo, 2024. "Digitalization through supply chains: Evidence from the customer concentration of Chinese listed companies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Zhangkai & Liu, Jinyu & Ma, Guangrong & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2024. "Political determinants of privatizations in China: A natural experiment based on politician career concerns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. Jamil, Nida & Chaudhry, Theresa Thompson & Chaudhry, Azam, 2022. "Trading textiles along the new silk route: The impact on Pakistani firms of gaining market access to China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Michael Rubens, 2023. "Market Structure, Oligopsony Power, and Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(9), pages 2382-2410, September.
    4. Emir Malikov & Jingfang Zhang & Shunan Zhao & Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2023. "Accounting for Cross-Location Technological Heterogeneity in the Measurement of Operations Efficiency and Productivity," Papers 2302.13430, arXiv.org.
    5. Svejnar, Jan & Hagemejer, Jan & Tyrowicz, Joanna, 2018. "Are Rushed Privatizations Substandard? Analyzing Firm-level Privatization under Fiscal Pressure," CEPR Discussion Papers 12991, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. James Harrigan & Ariell Reshef & Farid Toubal, 2018. "Techies, Trade, and Skill-Biased Productivity," NBER Working Papers 25295, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Chad Syverson, 2011. "What Determines Productivity?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 326-365, June.
    8. Jan Hagemejer & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2020. "A New Instrument for Measuring the Local Causal Effect of Privatisation on Firm Performance," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 35-52.
    9. Bruno Merlevede & Angelos Theodorakopoulos, 2018. "Productivity Effects of Internationalisation Through the Domestic Supply Chain: Evidence from Europe," Working Papers of VIVES - Research Centre for Regional Economics 627689, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), VIVES - Research Centre for Regional Economics.
    10. Geoffrey Barrows & Hélène Ollivier & Ariell Reshef, 2023. "Production Function Estimation with Multi-Destination Firms," CESifo Working Paper Series 10716, CESifo.
    11. Ádám Szentpéteri & Álmos Telegdy, 2010. "Political Selection Of Firms Into Privatization Programs. Evidence From Romanian Comprehensive Data," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 298-328, November.
    12. Richter, Philipp M. & Schiersch, Alexander, 2017. "CO2 emission intensity and exporting: Evidence from firm-level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 373-391.
    13. Martin Gornig & Alexander Schiersch, 2019. "Agglomeration Economies and the Firm TFP: Different Effects across Industries," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1788, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Richard Bräuer & Matthias Mertens & Viktor Slavtchev, 2023. "Import competition and firm productivity: Evidence from German manufacturing," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(8), pages 2285-2305, August.
    15. Maican, Florin & Orth, Matilda, 2021. "Determinants of economies of scope in retail," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    16. Brown, David J. & Earle, John S. & Telegdy, Almos, 2016. "Where does privatization work? Understanding the heterogeneity in estimated firm performance effects," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 329-362.
    17. Simone Lenzu & Francesco Manaresi, 2019. "Sources and implications of resource misallocation: new evidence from firm-level marginal products and user costs," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 485, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    18. Jin, Zhangfeng & Pan, Shiyuan, 2020. "Incentive Pay and Firm Productivity: Evidence from China," GLO Discussion Paper Series 479, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. Yoonseok Lee & Mary E. Lovely & Hoang Pham, 2023. "Dynamic and non‐neutral productivity effects of foreign ownership: A nonparametric approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 24-48, January.
    20. Emir Malikov & Shunan Zhao & Jingfang Zhang, 2024. "A System Approach to Structural Identification of Production Functions with Multi-Dimensional Productivity," Advances in Econometrics, in: Essays in Honor of Subal Kumbhakar, volume 46, pages 211-263, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:randje:v:52:y:2021:i:4:p:884-916. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/randdus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.