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China's GDP Growth May be Understated

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  • Hunter Clark
  • Maxim Pinkovskiy
  • Xavier Sala-i-Martin

Abstract

Concerns about the quality of China’s official GDP statistics have been a perennial question in understanding its economic dynamics. We use data on satellite-recorded nighttime lights as an independent benchmark for comparing various published indicators of the state of the Chinese economy. Using the methodology of Pinkovskiy and Sala-i-Martin (2016a and b), we exploit nighttime lights to compute the optimal weights for various Chinese economic indicators in a best unbiased predictor of Chinese growth rates. Our computations of Chinese growth based on optimal weightings of various combinations of economic indicators provide evidence against the hypothesis that the Chinese economy contracted precipitously in late 2015, and are consistent with the rate of Chinese growth being higher than is reported in the official statistics.

Suggested Citation

  • Hunter Clark & Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2017. "China's GDP Growth May be Understated," NBER Working Papers 23323, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23323
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    12. Maxim Pinkovskiy & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2016. "Lights, Camera … Income! Illuminating the National Accounts-Household Surveys Debate," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(2), pages 579-631.
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    3. Fernald, John G. & Hsu, Eric & Spiegel, Mark M., 2021. "Is China fudging its GDP figures? Evidence from trading partner data," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    4. Rao, Yanchun & Wang, Xiuli & Li, Hengkai, 2024. "Forecasting electricity consumption in China's Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration under the optimal economic growth path with low-carbon goals: Based on data of NPP-VIIRS-like nighttime light," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
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    6. Long, Fenjie & Zheng, Longfei & Song, Zhida, 2018. "High-speed rail and urban expansion: An empirical study using a time series of nighttime light satellite data in China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 106-118.
    7. Sinclair, Tara M., 2019. "Characteristics and implications of Chinese macroeconomic data revisions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1108-1117.
    8. José A. Tenreiro Machado & Maria Eugénia Mata & António M. Lopes, 2020. "Fractional Dynamics and Pseudo-Phase Space of Country Economic Processes," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Zhang, Qi & Hu, Yi & Jiao, Jianbin & Wang, Shouyang, 2023. "Is refined oil price regulation a “shock absorber” for crude oil price shocks?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    10. Hunter L. Clark & Jeffrey B. Dawson & Maxim L. Pinkovskiy, 2020. "How Stable Is China’s Growth? Shedding Light on Sparse Data," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 26(4), pages 1-38, October.
    11. Liu, Ping & James Hueng, C., 2017. "Measuring real business condition in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 261-274.
    12. Kong, Qunxi & Guo, Rui & Wang, Yang & Sui, Xiuping & Zhou, Shimin, 2020. "Home-country environment and firms’ outward foreign direct investment decision: Evidence from Chinese firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 390-399.
    13. Harry X. WU & Zhan LI, 2021. "Reassessing China's GDP Growth Performance: an Exploration of The Underestimated Price Effect," Discussion papers 21018, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    14. Eeva Kerola, 2019. "In Search of Fluctuations: Another Look at China’s Incredibly Stable GDP Growth Rates," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(3), pages 359-380, September.
    15. Brock, Gregory, 2019. "A remote sensing look at the economy of a Russian region (Rostov) adjacent to the Ukrainian crisis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 416-431.
    16. Fan Duan & Bulent Unel, 2019. "Persistence of cities: Evidence from China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 663-676, May.
    17. Jérôme TRINH, 2019. "Disaggregating the Chinese annual national accounts to quarterly series," THEMA Working Papers 2019-08, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    18. Nguyen Doan & Canh Phuc Nguyen & Ilan Noy & Yasuyuki Sawada, 2020. "The Economic Impacts of a Pandemic: What Happened after SARS in 2003?," CESifo Working Paper Series 8687, CESifo.
    19. Jérôme TRINH, 2019. "Temporal disaggregation of short time series with structural breaks: Estimating quarterly data from yearly emerging economies data," Working Papers 2019-11, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    20. Fernald, John G. & Hsu, Eric & Spiegel, Mark M., 2021. "Reprint: Is China fudging its GDP figures? Evidence from trading partner data," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

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