Empirical analysis on determinants of the county level economic growth in China's central region

The county level economies play an important role in China. In the central region of China, these economies account for a large share though their development is slow. To some extent, the difference between the central and eastern regions of China is mainly due to the disparity between the county level economies. Hence, growth in the county level economies is vital to economic development of China's central region. The objective of this article is to examine the determinants of economic growth at the county level. The analysis is based on the pooled data of 498 counties in the central region for the period of 2000-2006. The results show that investment, human capital and urbanization are positively related with county level economic growth, while the effects of labor input, fiscal expenditure and household savings are negative. Moreover, the location of counties also has remarkable influences on economic growth.