Impacts of telecommunications infrastructure and its spillover effects on regional economic growth in China

This dissertation empirically tests the impacts of telecommunications infrastructure as well as its spillover effects on regional economic growth in China. Based on data for 29 regions of China for the period 1986-2006, a panel data approach is used in the context of conditional convergence theory for estimation. A modified shift-share analytical framework is used to decompose regional economic output changes by labor and capital factor inputs. With appropriate controls for heteroscedasticity and spatial autocorrelation, the research findings of this dissertation include: (1) that for total regional economic growth, telecommunications infrastructure has significant negative impacts, implying the possibility of "investment congestion" in the telecommunications sector in China's regions during the examined period; (2) that for regional economic growth due to capital factors, telecommunications infrastructure has significant and positive impacts, indicating a positive relationship between this key input and regional output growth; (3) that negative and significant spillover effects of telecommunications infrastructure are identified for total regional economic growth, whereas the spillovers have positive influences on regional growth due to capital factors only; (4) conditional convergence has been occurring among China's regions, providing further evidence to the conditional convergence literature.