Income Distribution Commons^™

Which Type Of Urbanization Better Matches China’S Factor Endowment: A Comparison Of Population-Intensive Old Puxi And Land-Capital-Intensive New Pudong [Post-Print], Guanzhong James Wen, Jinwu Xiong

Faculty Scholarship

Based on a comparative study of New-Pudong (East Shanghai) and Old-Puxi (West Shanghai) in their respective ability to absorb rural migrants, the very essence of urbanization, this paper finds that, constrained by the current hukou (household registration) system and land tenure system, although New-Pudong has emerged as one of the most modernized urban areas in the world, it did so under an urbanization model that is government-dominant and characterized by high land-intensity and capital-intensity. This model represents a serious mismatch in terms of China’s factor endowment that is characterized with a large but relatively poor rural population. In sharp contrast, …