Chinese Industrial Growth : Brief Studies of Selected Investment Areas.

An analysis of productivity in the principal Chinese industries contributing to construction and producing the "hard" goods associated with the acquisition of other "fixed capital." This includes the bulk of military equipment and a small amount of goods produced for the consumer market. The data are derived for the years 1952 through 1957, the only period for which the data are sufficient to permit a comprehensive study. (Some later data are considered for both the steel and machine-building industries.) The examination of these industries suggests a tendency toward overstatement of achievements, particularly in regard to steel output, construction, and capital investment in railroads and coal mining. The "profit" rate in investment industries was extremely high; if the iron and steel, machine-building, electric power, and coal-mining industries were weighted by employment, this rate would average about seven times the wage bill or some five times the U.S. ratio. (See also RM-5662, RM-5841.) 117 pp. Ref.