Regional inequality in China during its rise as a giant exporter

A value chain analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID21352802
AuthorsYong Duan (0000-0002-0557-7525, School of International Trade and Economics Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing China, corresponding author), Erik Dietzenbacher (0000-0001-8874-4175, Department of Global Economics & Management, Faculty of Economics and Business University of Groningen Groningen The Netherlands), Bart Los (0000-0001-5850-4795, Department of Global Economics & Management, Faculty of Economics and Business University of Groningen Groningen The Netherlands), Ruochen Dai (0009-0007-4748-016X, School of Economics Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing China)
Year2023
Volume63
Issue1
Pages148-172
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Regional Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4146 • E-ISSN: 1467-9787
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jors.12619
OpenAlexW4294733686
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited55

China's exports success has implications for regional income inequality, because most of its export products are manufactured in the coastal zone. We propose a value chain‐based accounting framework to quantify the contributions of exports to regional income inequality. We employ newly developed interregional input–output tables for China, which distinguish between processing export activities and ordinary export activities. We analyze the period 2002–2012, the decade during which China became the “Factory of the World.” We find that an RMB of processing exports contributed much more to regional inequality than an RMB of ordinary exports or domestic final demand. Still, changes in regional inequality (increasing in 2002–2007 and decreasing between 2007 and 2012) are much more due to rising ordinary exports in the first subperiod and the growth of domestic final demand coupled with changes in the configuration of value chains in the second

China · Economics · Exchange rate · Factory (object-oriented programming) · Geography · Inequality · International economics · Macroeconomics · Renminbi · Value (mathematics) · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Global trade and economics · Mathematics · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis

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