Measuring the Technological Structure of Chinese Imports

• Date: 01 February 2016
• Author: Hao Wei
• Published date: 01 February 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12203

Measuring the Technological Structure of

Chinese Imports

Hao Wei*

Abstract

This paper uses the optimal partitioning method of clustering analysis using orderly samples to classify

trade goods and analyzes the technological structure of Chinese imports. The results indicate that since

2000, medium–high technology products have made up the majority of China’s imported goods, while the

shares of medium or higher technology products have decreased and the share of medium–low technology

products has increased sharply. The number of imported goods with a comparative advantage in the

Chinese market decreased, while the overall comparative advantage of imported goods also declined.

China imports different types of products from different countries and regions around the world. The find-

ings suggest that China should increase the import scale of high technology products.

1. Introduction

The transformation of a country’s economic structure has fundamental effects on eco-

nomic growth and development (Mukhopadhyay, 1998; Peneder, 2003). For develop-

ing countries, higher imported technical content means that the importing country can

make fuller use of foreign advanced technology to promote economic development

(Tan and Hwang, 2002; Cetintas and Barisik, 2009; Halpern et al., 2011). Through

technology imports, especially the import of high technology manufactured goods,

they may achieve faster technical growth than developed countries (Lin, 2010).

A detailed analysis of the structure of Chinese imports is necessary because since

entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, total Chinese imports

expanded 7.75 times, increasing from US$225 billion in 2000 to US$1743.4 billion in

2011, with a 22.5% annual growth rate. Meanwhile, China’s share of global imports

grew from 3.43% in 2000 to 9.53% in 2011, and the country has moved from ranking

eighth in the world in terms of imports in 2000 to second in 2011.

The existing research on the classification of the technological structure of traded

goods can be divided into two main strands. A basic method is classifying goods by a

fixed standard, such as in Lall (2000). Another method is classifying goods by technol-

ogy complexity index. Each product is assigned a technology complexity value and

then classified according to that numerical value (Fan et al., 2006; Du and Wang,

2007; Lall et al., 2006; Hausmann et al., 2007; Schott, 2008; Xu, 2010).

The latter approach overcomes the arbitrariness and subjectivity of the classifica-

tion by fixed standards in determining the technological content of commodities

* Wei: Business School, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xinjiekou Wai Street, Beijing 100875, P. R.

China. E-mail: weihao9989@163.com. This paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation

of China (No. 71473020), Social Science Foundation of Education Ministry of China (No. 14YJA790058),

Beijing Social Science Foundation (No.15JGA005), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Uni-

versity (SKZZY2014019) and Beijing Higher Education Young Elite TeacherProject (YETP0281).

Review of Development Economics, 20(1), 261–271, 2016

DOI:10.1111/rode.12203

©2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd