IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v25y2007i2p269-290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutional Innovations, Asymmetric Decentralization, and Local Economic Development: A Case Study of Kunshan, in Post-Mao China

Author

Listed:
  • Shiuh-Shen Chien

    (East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, 469A Towel Block #06-01 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore, 259770)

Abstract

The author provides an understanding of the concept of institutional innovations for local economic development in post-Mao China. With Kunshan, one of the most dramatically developed regions in Yangtze Delta, used as a case study, the aim is to understand how, under what circumstances, and by whom, locally initiated projects can be institutionalized and evolved in the context of China's transition. ‘Projects’ here refer to those reforms implemented by local governments initially without any permission from the centre. It is argued that the development of those projects can be understood as an evolutionary process, consisting of three mechanisms of local-central interactions: state's intention to connive; ex-post state endorsement, and ex-ante state adoption. Moreover, the innovations would be successful not only because of general contexts such as marketization, liberalization, and globalization, but also because of a particular process of economic decentralization to the local and political centralization under the party, or, as is proposed, asymmetric decentralization. Careerist local officials would like to utilize their decentralized resources to strive for more development opportunities, which could in turn become their ‘political capital’, enabling them to attract the attentions of upper level governments and hence gain promotion.

Suggested Citation

  • Shiuh-Shen Chien, 2007. "Institutional Innovations, Asymmetric Decentralization, and Local Economic Development: A Case Study of Kunshan, in Post-Mao China," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 25(2), pages 269-290, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:25:y:2007:i:2:p:269-290
    DOI: 10.1068/c0558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c0558
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c0558?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wing Thye Woo, 1999. "The Economics and Politics of Transition to an Open Market Economy: China," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 153, OECD Publishing.
    2. Li, Hongbin & Zhou, Li-An, 2005. "Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1743-1762, September.
    3. Chung, Jae Ho, 2000. "Central Control and Local Discretion in China: Leadership and Implementation during Post-Mao Decollectivization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297772.
    4. Yuanzheng Cao & Yingyi Qian & Barry R. Weingast, 1999. "From federalism, Chinese style to privatization, Chinese style," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 7(1), pages 103-131, March.
    5. Jieming Zhu, 1999. "Local Growth Coalition: The Context and Implications of China’s Gradualist Urban Land Reforms," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 534-548, September.
    6. Yingyi Qian & Barry R. Weingast, 1996. "China's transition to markets: market-preserving federalism, chinese style," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 149-185.
    7. Zhang, Le-Yin, 1994. "Location-specific advantages and manufacturing direct foreign investment in South China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 45-53, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaohui Hu & Robert Hassink, 2017. "Exploring adaptation and adaptability in uneven economic resilience: a tale of two Chinese mining regions," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 527-541.
    2. Diether W. Beuermann & Maria Amelina, 2018. "Does participatory budgeting improve decentralized public service delivery? Experimental evidence from rural Russia," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 339-379, November.
    3. Yanhua Chen & Suqiong Wei & Hongou Zhang & Yuehua Gao, 2019. "Spatiotemporal Evolution of the Taiwanese-Funded Information Technology and Electronics Industry Value Chain in Mainland China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, June.
    4. Y. H. Dennis Wei, 2015. "Network Linkages and Local Embeddedness of Foreign Ventures in China: The Case of Suzhou Municipality," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 287-299, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deng, Yuping & Wu, Yanrui & Xu, Helian, 2019. "Political turnover and firm pollution discharges: An empirical study," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Nirvikar Singh, 2007. "The dynamics of reform of India’s federal system," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 8(01), pages 22-31, April.
    3. Yongshen Liu & Yung Yau, 2020. "Urban Entrepreneurialism Vs Market Society: The Geography of China's Neoliberal Urbanism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 266-288, March.
    4. Fulong Wu, 2018. "Planning centrality, market instruments: Governing Chinese urban transformation under state entrepreneurialism," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1383-1399, May.
    5. Chen, Shimin & Sun, Zheng & Tang, Song & Wu, Donghui, 2011. "Government intervention and investment efficiency: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 259-271, April.
    6. Huang, Hongyun & Wang, Fengrong & Song, Malin & Balezentis, Tomas & Streimikiene, Dalia, 2021. "Green innovations for sustainable development of China: Analysis based on the nested spatial panel models," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Fei Yan, 2018. "Urban poverty, economic restructuring and poverty reduction policy in urban China: Evidence from Shanghai, 1978–2008," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(4), pages 465-481, July.
    8. Liu, Guy S. & Sun, Pei & Wing Thye Woo, 2007. "What motivates and constrains politicians to privatize? The case of China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 81-86, October.
    9. Jin, Hehui & Qian, Yingyi & Weingast, Barry R., 2005. "Regional decentralization and fiscal incentives: Federalism, Chinese style," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1719-1742, September.
    10. Shiuh-Shen Chien, 2008. "The Isomorphism of Local Development Policy: A Case Study of the Formation and Transformation of National Development Zones in Post-Mao Jiangsu, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(2), pages 273-294, February.
    11. Ran Tao & Fei Yuan & Mingxing Liu & Heng-fu Zou, 2007. ""Race to the Bottom" Competition by Negotiated Land Leasing: an institutional analysis and empirical evidence from Chinese cities," CEMA Working Papers 294, China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Finance and Economics.
    12. Chen, Gongmeng & Firth, Michael & Gao, Daniel N. & Rui, Oliver M., 2006. "Ownership structure, corporate governance, and fraud: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 424-448, June.
    13. Deng, Yuping & Wu, Yanrui & Xu, Helian, 2019. "Political connections and firm pollution behaviour: An empirical study," BOFIT Discussion Papers 4/2019, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    14. Zhong, Ninghua, 2015. "Corporate governance of Chinese privatized firms: Evidence from a survey of non-listed enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 1101-1121.
    15. Liu, Shenglong & Hu, Angang, 2013. "Demographic change and economic growth: Theory and evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 71-77.
    16. Fang Fang & Danglun Luo & Yuexin Huang & Xin Cao, 2024. "How does regional GDP manipulation affect livelihood investment?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    17. Liu, Guy S. & Sun, Pei & Woo, Wing Thye, 2006. "The Political Economy of Chinese-Style Privatization: Motives and Constraints," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2016-2033, December.
    18. Wu, Qiyan & Zhang, Xiaoling & Shang, Zhengyong & Li, Zaijun, 2015. "Political-economy based institutional industry complex and sustainable development: The case of the salt-chemical industry in Huai’an, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 39-47.
    19. Singh, Nirvikar, 2007. "Fiscal Decentralization in China and India: Competitive, Cooperative or Market Preserving Federalism?," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt76d8b4hm, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    20. Liu, Zekun & Jiang, Caixin & Huang, Jun & Zhang, Weiwen & Li, Xuewen, 2023. "Fiscal incentive, political incentive, and strategic interaction of illegal land use by local governments," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:25:y:2007:i:2:p:269-290. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.