Chinese provincial panel data

The CHINA STATISTICAL DATABASES available at China Data Online of the China Data Center at University of Michigan provide various annual statistics at the provincial level since 1949 and monthly macroeconomic statistics since 1998. Subscription required. For what data is available and how much subscription costs, see this page.

The Comprehensive Statistical Data and Materials on 50 Years of New China, published by the China Statistical Press in 1999, provides a provincial panel data for the years 1949-1998. The CD-ROM version was published in 2004. The data on grain production is used by Meng, Qian, and Yared's working paper entitled "The Institutional Causes of China's Great Famine, 1959-61".

To obtain the real GDP growth for each province, look at what they call the GDP Index. This is the ratio (in percentage) of the current year GDP to the previous year GDP with price being constant. If you subtract 100 from this index, therefore, you obtain the real GDP growth. Real GDP itself is never published. Only nominal GDP can be directly obtained.

China: government expenditure, growth, poverty, and infrastructure, 1952-2001, is compiled by IFPRI researchers. Available for free of charge.

Difang caizheng tongji ziliao (Local Public Finance Data) provides extra-budgetary revenue at the provincial level. According to Zhan (2009), this statistics is an indicator of excessive taxation and bribe extortion by local governments.

Jin, Qian, and Weingast (2005) compiled the provincial panel data (1970-1999) on the provincial government budgetary revenue, budgetary expenditure, extra-budgetary revenue, and extra-budgetary expenditure from various sources including China Statistical Yearbooks.

In his study on the impact of the Household-Responsibility System (HRS) on crop production, Lin (1992) compiled the provincial panel data from 1970 through 1987 on the gross value of crops produced, cultivated land, farm labor force, number of tractors, number of draft animals, gross weight of fertilizer consumed, the ratio of teams converted to the HRS, and so forth from various sources including National Agricultural Statistics for the 30 Years Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China, 1949-1979 (Beijing: State Statistical Bureau, 1980) and China Agricultural Yearbooks.