Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1997

Thesis Director

Harold D. Nordin

Abstract

Agriculture growth in China during the first dozen years of the economic reform could be attributed to an increase in inputs, technological progress, and institutional innovation. This paper introduces a couple of measurements for technological change and institutional reform, which include the imported capital for advanced technology, the number of high school graduates for improved human capital and the size of the free market for price reform. The study examines the effects of education, foreign capital, and price reform in rural China using data for both agriculture and farming over the period of 1978-89. Descriptions are made regarding the changes in those areas; regression is conducted for the econometric models generated from Cobb-Douglas production function. By providing an estimation of the function, the study identifies education, advanced technology and price liberalization as the major determinants of economic growth. As China is limited in terms of significant increases in the use of conventional inputs, in particular land, technological change is crucial to sustained production growth. To gain the maximum use from resources and technological progress, China also needs complete and continued institutional change.

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