Urban Development in China

Abstract

Urbanization is important for economic development. As the largest country in the world in terms of population, China has experienced a remarkable history of urbanization; one 1000 years ago it housed the largest cities in world, it went through a counter-urbanization revolution during the Mao reign. China is rapidly urbanizing again since the 1978 economic reforms of 1978, also compared to other countries. Given the sheer size of the country and the variation in urbanization over time, China is a real testing ground for the causes and consequences of urbanization which is precisely the topic of this issue. The causes and consequences of urbanization are subdivided in four themes: (i) technology, (ii) population dynamics and migration, (iii) transport & infrastructure, and (iv) the financial sector. The main conclusion is that China has benefitted from the recent agglomeration and urbanization surge but it also needs to address the drawbacks of this process.