The Application of Fractional Calculus in Chinese Economic Growth Models

In this paper, we apply Caputo-type fractional order calculus to simulate China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth based on R software, which is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. Moreover, we compare the results for the fractional model with the integer order model. In addition, we show the importance of variables according to the BIC criterion. The study shows that Caputo fractional order calculus can produce a better model and perform more accurately in predicting the GDP values from 2012–2016.