Decomposition of agricultural labor productivity growth and its regional disparity in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate determinants of regional disparities in China's agricultural labor productivity growth.Design/methodology/approachThis paper first decomposes the regional disparity in China's agricultural productivity growth into its components: technical change, efficiency change and input accumulation per worker. The convergence test is also used to analyze the determinants of regional disparity.FindingsThe paper finds that during 1987 and 2005, although the growth of China's agricultural labor productivity mainly depended on the accumulation of inputs, technical changes contributed more to regional disparities in agricultural productivity growth.Originality/valueThis paper, which studies the determinants of regional disparities in China's agricultural labor productivity growth, contributes to a better understanding of China's agricultural growth and how to reduce the regional inequality. It is indicated that improving efficiency to promote total factor productivity growth is important for agricultural labor productivity growth for the three regions – Eastern, Central and Western – of China. The increase in inputs for Western China, and the improvement in technical change for Central and Western China are significant aspects to promote the growth of agricultural productivity and narrow the gap with Eastern China.