What accounts for Chinese Business Cycle?

This paper investigates the sources of economic fluctuations in China since its reform that started in 1978. Using the framework of a standard neoclassical open economy model with time-varying frictions (wedge), we study the relative contribution of the efficiency, labor, investment and foreign debt wedges to the business cycles of China. The business accounting procedure suggests that productivity best explains the behavior of aggregate economic variables in China throughout the period of 1978–2006. The labor wedge plays a major role in explaining the movement of labor force. The foreign debt wedge and investment wedge primarily affect the composition of output, but their role in explaining the movement of output is modest. Our results suggest that the focus of government policies should be to combat the problems of inefficient factor utilization and labor market rigidity.