Premium
THE “REAL” CHINESE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) FOR THE PRE‐REFORM PERIOD 1952–77
Author(s) -
Wu Harry X.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1993.tb00438.x
Subject(s) - economics , gross domestic product , real gross domestic product , china , per capita , gdp deflator , macroeconomics , econometrics , geography , population , demography , archaeology , sociology
This paper develops an econometric method based on the relationship between GDP and NMP to estimate an unknown Chinese GDP series of 1952–77 using recently available Chinese GDP data of 1978–90 and a reconstructed NMP series of 1952–90. In this manner, a long‐term (1952–90) series of China's GDP has been obtained for long‐term analyses. A reassessment of Chinese economic performance of 1952–90 using this series suggests that the paper's estimate provides a reasonable reflection of both the Chinese pre‐and post‐reform economic growth in terms of production structure, growth pattern and policy changes. A series of China's per capita GDP in U.S. dollars which is comparable to the World Bank's estimate for the early 1980s has also been obtained.