Growing Like China∗
Zheng Song
Fudan University and Chinese University of Hong Kong
Kjetil Storesletten
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and CEPR
Fabrizio Zilibotti
University of Zurich and CEPR
November 2009 (First version: March 2008)
Abstract
This paper constructs a growth model that is consistent with salient features of
the recent Chinese growth experience: high output growth, sustained returns on
capital investment, extensive reallocation within the manufacturing sector, falling
labor share and accumulation of a large foreign surplus. The building blocks of
the theory are asymmetric financial imperfections and heterogeneous productivity.
Some firms use more productive technologies, but low-productivity firms survive
because of better access to credit markets. Due to the financial imperfections,
high-productivity firms — which are run by entrepreneurs — must be financed out
of internal savings. If these savings are sufficiently large, the high-productivity
firms outgrow the low-productivity firms and attract an increasing employment
share. The downsizing of the financially integrated firms forces a growing share
of domestic savings to be invested in foreign assets, generating a foreign surplus.
A calibrated version of the theory can account quantitatively for China’s growth
experience during 1992-2007.
JEL Codes. F43, G21, O16, O47, O53, P23, P31.
∗