Marketization, Opening Up, and Factor Efficiency in Provincial Economic Growth: Based on a Multilevel Statistical Model
LIU Dianguo , ZHANG Youjia
Front. Econ. China ›› 2026, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (3) : 314 -336.
In the period of rapid economic growth, the focus is on expanding the scale of production factors, whereas high-quality development requires improving the efficiency of these factors. Based on a multilevel statistical model, this paper incorporates marketization and opening up as influencing factors of economic growth factor efficiency into the analytical framework and constructs an econometric model to examine the effects of marketization and opening up on the efficiency of economic growth factors, thereby broadening the scope of the economic growth model to facilitate efficiency analysis. On this basis, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of marketization and opening up on the efficiency of provincial economic growth factors using China’s provincial data from 1998 to 2022. The empirical results show the following four points . Firstly, significant differences exist in total factor productivity (TFP), capital efficiency, labor efficiency, human capital efficiency, and technological innovation efficiency across provinces in China. Secondly, improvements in the development of product and factor markets contribute to increased TFP; more foreign direct investment does not facilitate TFP improvement, whereas increased trade in goods fosters the improvement of TFP. Thirdly, higher foreign direct investment promotes labor efficiency and human capital efficiency, while greater trade in goods suppresses human capital efficiency. Fourthly, the efficiency improvement of economic growth factors exhibits regional and temporal heterogeneity. In the course of economic growth, Chinese provinces should base their reform and opening-up policy frameworks on efficiency improvement, while accounting for inter-provincial disparities and temporal trends, to achieve high-quality economic development.
economic growth / factor efficiency / marketization / opening up
Higher Education Press
/
| 〈 |
|
〉 |
PDF
(897KB)
