Phd Thesis (Charles Chen)
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Chen, Charles I.‐hsin (2014) The dynamics of privatisation in China (1994‐2008): an empirical and econometric analysis. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18444 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. The Dynamics of Privatisation in China (1994-2008): An Empirical and Econometric Analysis Charles I-hsin Chen Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Economics 2014 Department of Economics School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Singed: _________________________________ Date: ___________________ 2 Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude and indebtedness to those who helped me, particularly Bob Ash, Ben Groom, Robin Porter, Jason Lok and Wen-chin Chung, without whom this thesis will not be completed. A special thanks for my parents Wen-sen Chen and Po-chia Lu and, of particular, my wife Linda Anzi for their patience and understandings throughout all these years. 3 Abstract At the heart of China’s economic transition is the privatisation reform launched in the late 1990s. This thesis identifies the driving force behind the dynamics, characterising the privatisation story in China, in terms of the shrinkage of state sector. Nine hypotheses are established to test the influence of a variety of factors across macroeconomic environment, microeconomic condition and the context of political economy. Two panel datasets, generated from public data sources with respectively 450 and 3,300 observations during the period from 1994 to 2008, are analyzed by system general method of moments (system-GMM) in a dynamic specification. New empirical evidence adds to our understanding of privatisation in China by rejecting a uniformly consistent path, but highlighting its enormous complexity, captured in its evolutionary, regionally and sectorally diverse nature. The process of privatisation appears to be multi-dimensional, which not only reflected a centrally-determined national policy, but was played out as a drama in which the principal actors were the central reformers, local bureaucrats, enterprise managers, bank lenders and private investors. Word count: 91,908 (including main chapters with footnotes) 4 Table of Contents Title Privatisation in China (1995-2008) 1 Table of contents 5 List of tables 6 List of figures 9 Abbreviation 10 Chapter One Introduction 11 Chapter Two From Enterprise Reform to Privatisation (1978-1997) 25 2.1 Bumpy road toward SOE reforms 25 2.2 From enterprise reform to ownership revolution 38 2.3 Privatisation process 58 2.4 Privatisation performance 69 Chapter Three Literature Review: Why privatise? 76 3.1 Studies of the determinants of privatisation 76 3.2 Theoretical discussion and establishing hypotheses 104 Chapter Four Research Hypotheses and Methodology 136 4.1 Research hypotheses 136 4.2 Multi-level framework 152 4.3 Econometrics 166 4.4 Data and variables 181 Chapter Five Provincial Analysis 207 5.1 Data and summary statistics 207 5.2 Preliminary analysis 213 5.3 Empirical results 230 Chapter Six Industrial Analysis 254 6.1 Data and descriptive statistics 254 6.2 Preliminary analysis 256 6.3 Empirical results 263 Chapter Seven Concluding Analysis – Privatisation with Chinese 293 Characteristics? 7.1 General analysis 293 7.2 The story of Chinese privatisation 303 7.3 Concluding remarks: Privatisation with Chinese 308 characteristics? 7.4 About this research 313 Appendix 2A 324 5A 328 5B 346 References 347 5 List of Tables Table 2.1 Chronological table of enterprise reforms in China 27 (1978-1999) Table 2.2 SOE performance in selected years 45 Table 2.3 Subsidies to loss-making SOEs in central and local 48 governments (1978-2006) Table 2.4 Ownership diversification and enterprise numbers 49 (1980-2008) Table 2.5 Average decreasing share of state-owned enterprises and 68 employees by provinces and industries (1994-2008) Table 2.6 Measuring the privatisation performance in privatisation 70 literature Table 3.1 Theoretical studies of privatisation dynamics in literature 81 Table 3.2 Empirical studies of determinants of privatisation 94 Table 3.3 Theories, arguments, models and evidence for hypotheses 130 Table 4.1 Basic conditions of Chinese civil servants and administrative 151 personnel in enterprises (1994) Table 4.2 Privatisation variable in empirical literature 185 Table 4.3 Variable definitions and summary statistics in the provincial 198 dataset Table 4.4 Variable definitions, summary statistics and correlations 201 Table 5.1 Summary statistics in the provincial dataset 207 Table 5.2 Privatisation variable 1 – provincial index of state-owned and 211 state holding enterprises Table 5.3 Privatisation variable 2 – provincial index of employees in 212 state-owned and state holding enterprises Table 5.4 Regional and time comparison 214 Table 5.5 Simple regression analysis by pooled-OLS 228 Table 5.6 Empirical results for the hypothesis group of political 235 economy Table 5.7 Empirical results for the hypothesis group of macroeconomic 240 environment Table 5.8 Empirical results for the hypothesis group of microeconomic 245 conditions Table 5.9 Comparison of all hypotheses by principal component 250 analysis 6 Table 6.1 Summary statistics and correlation table 255 Table 6.2 Summary statistics by sector, region and time 258 Table 6.3 Mean comparison of the privatisation degree by industry 260 Table 6.4 Simple regression analysis by pooled-OLS 263 Table 6.5 Empirical results from light manufacturing industries 268 Table 6.6 Empirical results from the heavy manufacturing industries 273 Table 6.7 Empirical results from mining, electricity, gas and water 277 industries Table 6.8 Empirical results by regions 281 Table 6.9 Empirical results by time 288 Table 6.10 Privatisation patterns by sector, region and time 289 Table 2A.1 Number of state-owned and state holding enterprises with 324 independent accounting system in regions and industries (1994-2008) Table 2A.2 Number of employees in state-owned and state holding 326 enterprises with independent accounting system in regions and industries (1994-2008) Table 5A.1a Soft budget variable 1 – index of subsidies for loss-making 328 SOEs Table 5A.1b Soft budget variable 2 – industrial loans to total loans in 329 financial institutes Table 5A.2a Political ideology variable 1 – private-owned enterprises to 330 total enterprises Table 5A.2b Political ideology variable 2 – employees of private owned 331 enterprises to total employees Table 5A.3a Decentralisation variable 1 – self-funding share of the 332 investment of capital construction Table 5A.3b Decentralisation variable 2 – local revenue share to local 333 expenditure Table 5A.4a Market competition variable 1 – non-state share of industrial 334 output Table 5A.4b Market competition variable 2 – openness degree to 335 international trade Table 5A.5a Financial pressure variable 1 – asset-liability ratio 336 Table 5A.5b Financial pressure variable 2 – deficit budget share 337 Table 5A.6a Institutional infrastructure variable 1 – national physical 338 infrastructure index Table 5A.6b Institutional infrastructure variable 2 – national legal 339 7 infrastructure index Table 5A.7a Economic efficiency variable 1 – asset-contribution rate 340 Table 5A.7b Economic efficiency variable 2 – asset-output ratio 341 Table 5A.8a Firm size variable 1 – provincial index of average number of 342 employees in SOEs Table 5A.8b Firm size variable 2 – provincial index of average assets in 343 SOEs Table 5A.9a Human capital variable 1 – scientific and technical personnel 344 share of total SOE employees Table 5A.9b Human capital variable 2 – provincial index of labour 345 productivity Table 5B.1 Principal component analysis and summary statistics of new 346 variables 8 List of Figures Figure 2.1 Total number and annual growth rate of SOEs (1980-2008) 41 Figure 2.2 Subsidies to loss-making SOEs (1985-2006) 47 Figure 2.3 Industrial loans and growth changes (1979-2008) 52 Figure 2.4 Interest rate spreads for one year period (1955-2002) and the 54 real lending rate (1985-2002) Figure 2.5 Composition of the industrial output by ownership types 61 (1949-2008) Figure 2.6 Total industrial output by ownership types (1949-2008) 62 Figure 2.7 Decreases of SOEs by provinces (1994-2008) 63 Figure 2.8 Decreases of SOE employees by provinces (1994-2008) 64 Figure 2.9 Deceases of SOEs by industries (1994-2008)