21st Century Market Integration in China: An Analysis Based on The Average Wages of Urban Units at Provincial Level

Abstract: Abstract: China is a huge country which had experienced economic booms since the last thirty years, while the country had become one of the world’s largest economies, its internal disorders arising from growing disparities between regions had become one of the important impediments for further growth and causes for social instability. At such stake, attentions were paid by the government around 2000 to encourage market integration. In this paper, the Sigma convergence, Beta convergence as well as the Correlation coefficient were used to analyze the average wages of urban units at provincial level from 2000 to 2011, as a measure for the market integration during this period. The results showed that during this period, there was a convergence of average wages of urban units between all provinces as well as between provinces of each of the regions of China, implying the role of the government policies as well as the development towards a more healthier economy in the long run.