Speaker: Prof. Xiaodong Zhu (University of Hong Kong)

Time: 10:00-11:30, Feb. 26, 2025, GMT+8

Venue: 1F, Wanzhong Building, Langrun Garden, PKU

Zoom: 821 9499 0142 (Password: 655507)

Abstract:
This paper investigates the role of bottom-up reforms in driving China's economic growth.  Using granular documentation from county-level gazetteers, we identify local reform events from 1976 to 2005, capturing de facto policy innovations and their diffusion. Our findings show that bottom-up reforms primarily drive growth through productivity improvements, while top-down (centrally sponsored) reforms operate mainly through capital accumulation. Evidence from firm entry and structural transformation further corroborates the productivity-enhancing effects of bottom-up reforms. Notably, these reforms were more likely to originate in politically peripheral regions and the diffusion of these reforms was more driven by local conditions than centrally sponsored reforms.

Source: Institute of New Structural Economics, PKU