China’s transfer payment mechanism: A case study

In this paper, a two-region endogenous growth model is adapted to analyse Western China’s development, and regional divergence and convergence processes. Dynamic optimization is utilized to calculate the growth rate of the Chinese economy on the optimal growth path, and backward integration is utilized to simulate the evolvement of some key indicators, including relative GDP per capita of Western China to Eastern China, regional capital growth rate and regional GDP growth rate. The calibrations of this model after 1992 are conducted. The calibration results provide evidence about the speed of Western China’s relative development, and also shed some light on the future regional convergence process under the Western Development Programme launched in 2000.