Agricultural productivity convergence in China

Abstract

This article investigates the progress and prospects of agricultural productivity catch-up in China since the rural reform. A model averaging method is employed to jointly consider four productivity estimates, which can better capture the province-specific and non-linear trend of productivity that was estimated with bias in previous literature. This article then utilizes three convergence tests to evaluate whether convergence has occurred and explores channels through which agricultural convergence can be achieved or accelerated. Using three panels at the province, county and commodity levels, this article concludes that agriculture is not on the right track to catch-up, since 23 out of 28 provinces and 19 out of 23 farm commodities fail to converge. However, the productivity gap may diminish in the future if the irrigation, education, public expenditure and structural transformation for lagging provinces can be improved.