Ownership, productivity change, and financial performance in Chinese industry

This paper investigates Chinese industrial productivity from 1980 to 1996. Results include series for foreign-linked, shareholding, and private enterprises. We find long-term productivity increase, with growth rates declining during the 1990's. Productivity outcomes outside the state and collective sectors are modest, with shareholding enterprises suffering productivity declines. The paper examines differences in marginal factor productivity across ownership types, considers the impact of business cycles on the interpretation of productivity trends, and documents a statistical relationship among the profitability of state enterprises, the relative productivity performance of state firms, and the entry of new firms outside the state sector. (C) 2000 Academic Press. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: L60, O17, P20.