The study utilises survey data on 1000 households in rural China to investigate sources of disparities in factor productivities for rice, wheat and maize in different provinces. The effects of natural endowments are emphasised. It is found that for respective crops, the level of factor productivities is generally higher in their major producing areas than that in the non-major producing areas d...

New Economic Geography (NEG) has reached a theoretical consolidation while related empirical tests are still scarce. The present paper aims at providing some evidence on the validity of forces emphasised by NEG. The analysis starts from the nominal wage equation derived from the Krugman “core-periphery model” and focuses on one of the main propositions of NEG that access advantages raise factor...

This paper argues that the regional income gap of China is endogenously determined by its long-term economic development strategy. Development strategies can be broadly divided into two mutually exclusive groups: (i) the comparative advantage-defying (CAD) strategy, which attempts to encourage firms to deviate from the economy’s existing comparative advantages in their entry into an industry or...

This study provides a descriptive analysis of human capital in different regions of Pakistan. Three different categories of human capital like rural, urban and overall are formed for the four provinces of Pakistan. The study finds visible difference in human capital situation between rural and urban areas of Pakistan. The study suggests that skills of workforce can be boosted through investment...