Entrepreneurial urban growth with Chinese characteristics

Abstract

Conventional wisdom attributed China's rapid urbanization to targeted measures taken by the central state. This paper looks at the role of Chinese local states in China's urban and industrial growth, not as an advocate of urbanization and industrialization per se, but as an entrepreneurial manager that aims to maximize its revenues from urban physical and economic growth. It demonstrates how local states in China are motivated by the imperatives associated with fiscal and political institutions and enabled by housing and land use policies to promote the growth of real estate and manufacturing sectors. It is under such circumstance that urban growth becomes the imperative mission of Chinese local states. This paper concludes with implications of this urban growth logic for sustainable urban development.