China is a large developing economy and it has been deeply involved in globalization since its economic reform and opening-up. Simultaneously, China has seen a significant change in the spatial distribution of economic resources, especially capital and labor. In the recent 10 years, economists have made significant progress in both theoretical and empirical studies on related topics.
The book provides an overview on the existing literature and current policy debates on what we have known and what we have misunderstood. This book includes an analytical framework of the New Economic Geography (NEG) with political economy to help us understand China's regional development issues. The book of 10 chapters is organized into four thematic sections. The first section is a theoretical discussion on the relationship between economic agglomeration and interregional balanced development. The second section is a political economy analysis on regional and urban-rural development. The third section provides a summary on empirical literatures concerning from market segmentation and institutional barriers to production factor mobility. The final section consists of four empirical chapters on the relationship between agglomeration and balance, which is the core of relevant policy debates.
The book argues that for China to achieve both efficiency and balance for regional development, China may need to reform its systems which constrain production factors mobility. This book is a valuable reference for readers who are interested in spatial economics and the Chinese economy, especially its regional and urban development.
Industry Reviews
"According to the foreword by Jacque Thisse, China's current economic situation is particularly well- suited to study in the framework of economic geography, which takes into account migration, transportation, and spatial considerations regarding growth, development, and disparities. Ten contributions by Chinese economists address the broad themes of economic agglomeration and interregional development, political economy and analysis, segmentation and integration, and agglomeration and balance." - Book News "The book China's Regional Development - Review and Prospect is a collection of ten chapters organized in four parts: economic agglomeration and regional development, political economy and analysis, segmentation and integration, and agglomeration and balance. Empirical evidence adds to the richness of the presentation throughout the book. The book addresses forces that have promoted agglomeration of industries in the eastern provinces of China and those that have hindered regional development in the central and western provinces... Ultimately, this book addresses the implications of rapid industrialization for regional development in a country where politics and economics are interconnected, institutional constraints limit interregional trade in favor of export market development, migration policies create segmentation of labor in cities, and a complex interaction of social-political-geographic issues underlie the perpetuation of regional uneven development in the face of rapid wealth creation." - Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen, Professor, Department of Geography, University at Buffalo, U.S.A.
