The productivity analysis performed in this study requires constant price measures of
GDP and investment data. Yet, in China, price indexes prior to 1978 have only became
available very recently. Thus, some previous studies (Chow, 1993; Chow and Li, 2002; JRZ,
1992) consider that under the centrally planned economy, changes in prices were negligible
despite high inflation figures in the early 60’s. A detailed discussion about the construction of
data series used in the growth accounting analysis is provided below.