Calculation Decomposition And Convergence Analysis Of Total Factor Productivity In Southwest China

As a key region of poverty alleviation in China,southwest China’s economy has developed rapidly in the past 20 years,mainly benefiting from major strategic arrangements such as "Western Development","One Belt and One Road" and "Yangtze River Economic Belt" issued by the central government.The development of southwest provinces has been greatly assisted by the state in all aspects,and its economic development trend has been obviously accelerated.In recent years,it has become a new growth pole of China’s economic development.Yunnan,Guizhou,Sichuan and Chongqing municipality are the main forces of the whole southwest region and their economic development is the strongest driving force for the economic development of the whole southwest region.The report of the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that China’s economy has shifted from high-speed growth to high-quality development stage,and China’s economic growth needs to rely on the growth of total factor productivity in the future.Improving the efficiency of resource allocation and total factor productivity is an important way to improve the quality of economy in the future.The improvement of total factor productivity in southwest China is of great significance to promote the reform of economic quality,efficiency and power in the future.Based on city-level data and considering labor heterogeneity,depreciation rate heterogeneity and other factors,this paper uses DEA-Malmquist method to measure and decompose the total factor productivity of 47 cities and states in southwest China.Combined with the measurement results,the evolution trend of total factor productivity of cities and prefectures in southwest China over time is analyzed from three levels: southwest China as a whole,each region in southwest China and city group divided by city size.The σ convergence of total factor productivity growth of southwest China as a whole,each region in southwest China and city group of different sizes is tested.The spatial absolute β convergence of total factor productivity growth in southwest China and other regions is also discussed.According to the analysis of calculation results,in the total factor productivity growth of cities and states in southwest China,the improvement of technological progress rate accounts for the largest proportion,while technical efficiency and scale efficiency account for a small proportion,especially the change of technological efficiency has a weak constraint on economic development.The results of convergence analysis show that the growth of total factor productivity in Southwest China has the trend of σ convergence and spatial absolute β convergence.Since there is no significant difference in the economic development level of cities grouped by city size,this paper only analyzes the σ convergence.The results show that the cities grouped by city size do not have the trend of σ convergence,and the σ coefficient fluctuates all the time.The spatial absolute β convergence of TFP growth in SichuanChongqing region,Guizhou province and Yunnan Province is the fastest and the half life cycle is the shortest.In order to improve the total factor productivity in southwest China,the following suggestions are put forward: first,improve the efficiency of resource allocation in southwest China,promote the improvement of technical efficiency and scale efficiency,and solve the problem that efficiency drags the growth of total factor productivity;Second,economic policies should be implemented in accordance with local conditions and exchanges and cooperation between cities should be strengthened.Third,increase investment in human capital and strengthen the introduction of senior talents.Fourth,we need to foster collaborative innovation in city clusters.In terms of innovation,this paper has the following two breakthroughs: First,in the calculation of total factor productivity of cities in southwest China,the heterogeneity of labor input and capital depreciation is taken into account,and the index treatment is more careful,and the calculation results are more reasonable;Second,based on the calculation and decomposition results of urban unit total factor productivity,this paper makes a comparative analysis of total factor productivity and its decomposition factors from the perspectives of southwest China as a whole,by region and by city size,which makes a supplement to the economic growth related research in Southwest China.In addition,this paper also has some shortcomings.Due to some omissions in the original data required for the calculation of total factor productivity,the data obtained by interpolation method may be different from the actual situation,resulting in certain errors in the analysis results.Although the DEA-Malmquist method avoids making assumptions about the form and distribution of production function,avoiding strong theoretical constraints and a large number of parameter estimation,the inherent defects of its model still exist.