Rethinking China’s underurbanization: An evaluation of its county-to-city upgrading policy
It has been argued in the literature that China is underurbanized in large part because of restrictions on migration. While the presence of migration barriers can help explain why existing cities fail to achieve their optimal size, it cannot explain the lack of cities. Although migration has become...
| Autores principales: | , , |
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| Formato: | Artículo preliminar |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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International Food Policy Research Institute
2009
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161960 |
| _version_ | 1855533326787411968 |
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| author | Fan, Shenggen Li, Lixing Zhang, Xiaobo |
| author_browse | Fan, Shenggen Li, Lixing Zhang, Xiaobo |
| author_facet | Fan, Shenggen Li, Lixing Zhang, Xiaobo |
| author_sort | Fan, Shenggen |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | It has been argued in the literature that China is underurbanized in large part because of restrictions on migration. While the presence of migration barriers can help explain why existing cities fail to achieve their optimal size, it cannot explain the lack of cities. Although migration has become much easier over time, the number of cities in China has been rather stagnant. In this paper, we argue that lack of appropriate mechanisms for creating new cities is another reason for underurbanization. Under China’s hierarchical governance structure, the only way to create new cities is through the centralized policy of upgrading existing counties or prefectures into cities. However, in practice the implementation of the county-to-city upgrading policy was more complicated than expected. Based on a county-level panel dataset, this paper shows that jurisdictions that were upgraded to cities prior to 1998 do not perform better relative to their counterparts that remain to be counties in terms of both economic growth and providing public services. The policy was retracted in 1997, freezing the number of county-level cities since then. This, in turn, contributes to the observed underurbanization. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace161960 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2009 |
| publishDateRange | 2009 |
| publishDateSort | 2009 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1619602025-11-06T07:03:26Z Rethinking China’s underurbanization: An evaluation of its county-to-city upgrading policy Fan, Shenggen Li, Lixing Zhang, Xiaobo urbanization towns governance centralization development policies It has been argued in the literature that China is underurbanized in large part because of restrictions on migration. While the presence of migration barriers can help explain why existing cities fail to achieve their optimal size, it cannot explain the lack of cities. Although migration has become much easier over time, the number of cities in China has been rather stagnant. In this paper, we argue that lack of appropriate mechanisms for creating new cities is another reason for underurbanization. Under China’s hierarchical governance structure, the only way to create new cities is through the centralized policy of upgrading existing counties or prefectures into cities. However, in practice the implementation of the county-to-city upgrading policy was more complicated than expected. Based on a county-level panel dataset, this paper shows that jurisdictions that were upgraded to cities prior to 1998 do not perform better relative to their counterparts that remain to be counties in terms of both economic growth and providing public services. The policy was retracted in 1997, freezing the number of county-level cities since then. This, in turn, contributes to the observed underurbanization. 2009 2024-11-21T09:59:52Z 2024-11-21T09:59:52Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161960 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Fan, Shenggen; Li, Lixing; Zhang, Xiaobo. 2009. Rethinking China’s underurbanization. IFPRI Discussion Paper 875. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161960 |
| spellingShingle | urbanization towns governance centralization development policies Fan, Shenggen Li, Lixing Zhang, Xiaobo Rethinking China’s underurbanization: An evaluation of its county-to-city upgrading policy |
| title | Rethinking China’s underurbanization: An evaluation of its county-to-city upgrading policy |
| title_full | Rethinking China’s underurbanization: An evaluation of its county-to-city upgrading policy |
| title_fullStr | Rethinking China’s underurbanization: An evaluation of its county-to-city upgrading policy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rethinking China’s underurbanization: An evaluation of its county-to-city upgrading policy |
| title_short | Rethinking China’s underurbanization: An evaluation of its county-to-city upgrading policy |
| title_sort | rethinking china s underurbanization an evaluation of its county to city upgrading policy |
| topic | urbanization towns governance centralization development policies |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161960 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fanshenggen rethinkingchinasunderurbanizationanevaluationofitscountytocityupgradingpolicy AT lilixing rethinkingchinasunderurbanizationanevaluationofitscountytocityupgradingpolicy AT zhangxiaobo rethinkingchinasunderurbanizationanevaluationofitscountytocityupgradingpolicy |