This paper presents a timely assessment of Chinese industrial productivity
performances over the period 1952-2005. The total factor productivity (TFP) growth analysis
is based on a Cobb-Douglas specification with aggregated annual data set. This study tackles
some theoretical and methodological issues raised by critics of previous studies. First of all,
the use of economic tools allows us to relax some restrictive hypothesis of the neoclassical
growth framework such as competitive market behaviour, constant returns to scale production
technology and Hicks neutral technological change. In addition, our TFP growth estimates are
adjusted for business fluctuations. The paper also deals with the autocorrelation issue
prevailing in most previous studies.