Regional agricultural labour productivity convergence in China

Abstract

This paper tests for regional agricultural labour productivity (ALP) convergence in China. The analysis indicates that ALP diverges between 1985 and 1992, but converges between 1992 and 2000. Further analysis shows that these findings can be explained by the different rates of agricultural out-migration in these two periods. We argue that these different rates of regional agricultural out-migration can be attributed to the different government policies and economic conditions before and after 1992. In particular, migrants from rural to urban areas found it easier to obtain both food and work in the post-1992 era.