13.07.2015 Views

View/save PDF version of this document - La Strada International

View/save PDF version of this document - La Strada International

View/save PDF version of this document - La Strada International

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Figure 3. Sources <strong>of</strong> China’s Economic Growth in 1978-1997Technical Advance3%<strong>La</strong>bor Allocation20%Capital29%Human Capital24%<strong>La</strong>bour24%Source: Cai, Fang, and Wang Dewen, “The Sustainability <strong>of</strong> China’s Economic Growth and theContribution <strong>of</strong> <strong>La</strong>bor.” Journal <strong>of</strong> Economic Research, No. 10 1999.This pattern will continue. Johnson (1999) has argued that transfers acrosslabor sectors over the next three decades could contribute as much astwo or three percentage points to China’s annual economic growth if thebarriers to migration are gradually lifted, and if rural and urban wages arenearly equalized for individuals with similar levels <strong>of</strong> human capital. Aconservative estimate (Taylor and Martin 1998) suggests that the share <strong>of</strong>agricultural employment will decrease by 3.1 percentage points with each10 percent growth <strong>of</strong> GNP, if China follows a similar pattern <strong>of</strong> migrationfrom agricultural to non-agricultural sectors as other developing countries.Rapid urbanization in the next twenty years will release a huge number <strong>of</strong>rural laborers from agriculture and from rural areas. The transformationand decline <strong>of</strong> agricultural employment, and the reallocation <strong>of</strong> laborit generates, will have a pr<strong>of</strong>ound impact on the rural economy and oneconomic development as a whole.254In a recent study, the World Bank (2005) divided the Chinese economyinto four sectors – agriculture, urban industry, urban services and ruralnon-agriculture – and investigated their impact on economic growth bysimulating the reallocation <strong>of</strong> labor from the low-productivity agriculturalsectors to high-productivity sectors. This analysis found that, despitebecoming more integrated over the reform period, China’s labor marketis still significantly fragmented across regions and across sectors. Thisfragmentation is reinforced by the remains <strong>of</strong> the hukou system, by limitedaccess for migrants to social services, and the highly uneven quality <strong>of</strong>public services. If China takes measures to abolish the segregation <strong>of</strong> goodsand factors markets, including labor, the gains from market integrationcould be huge.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!