Spatial Distribution and Its Affecting Factors of Economy Efficiency and Total Factor Productivity in China: 1990-2009

The paper,using Malmquist index model,estimates China's economy efficiency and TFP (total factor productivity) during 1990-2009 years,and analyzes its affecting factors. The main result shows that China's TFP was fluctuant and fell at an annual rate of 1.35% in the past 20 years. According to the regional division,China can be divided into East,Middle,West,and Northeast regions,among which eastern region's TFP increased with an average of 2.37%,showing a promotion for the significant rise of technological progress efficiency. However,for the rest of China,the total factor productivity shows a decline in varying degrees,and the TFP for Middle,West and Northeast regions decreased by 4.45%,2.78% and 1.84%,respectively; the TFP decline was due to the decline of technical efficiency,pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency in most years. The paper also finds that economic aggregation,human capital,information,infrastructure,open and institution are positive on total factor productivity,while industry,government intervention and land scale are negative on it. However,infrastructure is not significant in statistics. The key findings of the paper have important policy implications.