Institutional changes and land development in Chinese cities: a case study of Beijing, 1996-2008

Abstract

Chinese cities have experienced dramatic growth and transformation since

the initiation of economic reforms in 1978. One of the main characteristics of

contemporary urban development in China has been the massive expansion of

urban land, which has become one of the most important means to generate fiscal

revenue and promote local economic growth. The existing literature on urban

China has addressed issues such as China’s urbanization, changing urban land use

and changing public finance. What is missing from the existing literature is the

interrelationship among these three processes. The links between urban socioeconomic

development and land use change remain poorly understood, and the

discussion of the relationship between institutional changes and urban land

development has been rather limited. This thesis takes a political economy

perspective to investigate the relationship among institutional changes, urban land

development and urban socio-economic changes in Chinese cities, using Beijing

as a case. The main argument made in this study is that urban land development

has worked as an important medium to channel the effects of institutional changes

toward shaping the pattern of urban economic and social development.

During the period of 1996 -2008, Beijing experienced large-scale urban

expansion. The area of agricultural land and unused land dropped by 1.1% and

2.9% respectively while the land used for construction increased by 5.6%, and the

urban built-up area in 2008 was 2.75 times of the area in 1996. My research has

found that the peak of Beijing’s urban land development occurred in the period of

2001 to 2004 when both the growth of urban construction land and the transaction

volume of land conveyance reached their climax. Much of the newly increased

construction land was converted from agriculture for industrial use. Over space,

urban land development in Beijing was concentrated in the northwestern and

eastern regions. My detailed analysis of the sources and dynamics of urban land

development in Beijing has identified profound institutional changes made in the

central-municipal fiscal relations as the most important driving forces responsible

for the temporal, structural, and spatial characteristics of land development

demonstrated in Beijing. My further assessment of the effects of urban land

development in Beijing has revealed a mixed picture of improved economic

efficiency and persistent social and spatial disparity. The efficiency of Beijing’s

economic growth has improved significantly when compared with its past and

with other cities in the region. However, the internal variations in urban socioeconomic

development in the Beijing city-region has been worsen. By

establishing the relationship among the three elements, namely urban land

development, institutional changes and urban socio-economic development, this

research challenges the conventional wisdom that sees land development as

simply the passive outcome of economic growth and suggests that land should

better be seen as the “medium” to connect and materialize the effects of changes

in the political and institutional arena upon urban social and economic

transformation.