Of C Hina ’ S Economic Structures between 1987 and 1997 : an Input - Output Prospective

China experienced a rapid economic growth since 1979 when it opened up. The fast transformation affected the country in many ways including economic structure. This paper tries to identify the changes of economic structure influenced by economic growth from input-output prospective. The methodology is rooted in key sector analysis and complemented by presentation of the multiplier product matrix (MPM), which presents an interpretation of structure based on the products of the row and column of Leontief inverse, and provides a macro-economic visualization (economic landscape) of economic structure to make a better understanding of economic structure change of one economy in different times. The analyses results show that heavy industries sectors maintain dominant roles in the Chinese economy from 1987 to 1997, but with different emphases. Laborintensive industries like textiles are giving way to hightechnology industry due to an active policy that intends to develop high-technology. Some nonmanufacturing sectors changed their roles in the national economy and started to influence the economy in a positive way, but the services sector has not been a key sector in national economy. Therefore China's developing character as a developing country has not changed. 1 Special thanks go to Ms. Haiyan Wang (Department of National Accounts, National Bureau of Statistics of P.R. China), for providing suggestions and access to dataset used in the paper. We also would like to acknowledge Jiemin Guo (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce Department of USA), Xiaofan Liu (Beijing office, World Bank), Suahasil Nazara (Regional Economics Applications Laboratory, University of Illinois, USA), Michael Sonis ( Bar Ilan University, Israel) for suggestions and comments. The standard disclaimer applies. 2 Department of National Accounts, National Bureau of Statistics, P.R. China 3 Regional Economics Applications Laboratory, University of Illinois, USA R E A L Comparative analysis of China’s economic structures between 1987 and 1997: an input-output prospective 2