IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v42y2005i8p1369-1390.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Transitional Institution for the Emerging Land Market in Urban China

Author

Listed:
  • Jieming Zhu

    (Department of Real Estate, National University of Singapore, 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore 117566, rstzhujm@nus.edu.sg)

Abstract

Chinese economic reforms since 1978 have been a continuous process of fundamental institutional change. The new institution of ambiguous property rights over state-owned urban land evolves from the socialist people's landownership. This institutional change is driven by the changing economic system and by two new organisations-the local developmental state and danwei -enterprises. The new institution facilitates the formation of an emerging land market. This land market, structured by ambiguous property rights, has accounted for the dynamic urban physical growth in many of China's coastal cities in the 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless, massive rent dissipation induced by the new institution does not provide market certainty, nor does it offer incentives for optimal development. The cost incurred by the institution is gradually overtaking its benefit. The ambiguous property rights are deemed to be a transitional institution during the development of land markets in urban China.

Suggested Citation

  • Jieming Zhu, 2005. "A Transitional Institution for the Emerging Land Market in Urban China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 1369-1390, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:42:y:2005:i:8:p:1369-1390
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980500150714
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420980500150714
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420980500150714?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. Douglass C. North, 1998. "The Institutional Foundations of East Asian Development: A Summary Evaluation," International Economic Association Series, in: Yujiro Hayami & Masahiko Aoki (ed.), The Institutional Foundations of East Asian Economic Development, chapter 17, pages 552-560, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    3. Lawrence J. Lau & Yingyi Qian & Gerard Roland, 2000. "Reform without Losers: An Interpretation of China's Dual-Track Approach to Transition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(1), pages 120-143, February.
    4. Krueger, Anne O, 1974. "The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 291-303, June.
    5. Elster, Jon, 1989. "Social Norms and Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 99-117, Fall.
    6. Xu, Xiaonian & Wang, Yan, 1999. "Ownership structure and corporate governance in Chinese stock companies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 75-98.
    7. Anne Haila, 1999. "Why is Shanghai Building a Giant Speculative Property Bubble?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 583-588, September.
    8. Huang,Yasheng, 1996. "Inflation and Investment Controls in China," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521554831, October.
    9. Broadman, H.G., 1995. "Meeting the Challenge of Chineese Entreprise Reform," World Bank - Discussion Papers 283, World Bank.
    10. Wong, Christine P. W., 1987. "Between plan and market: The role of the local sector in post-mao China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 385-398, September.
    11. Michael Ball, 1998. "Institutions in British Property Research: A Review," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(9), pages 1501-1517, August.
    12. Heiner, Ronald A, 1983. "The Origin of Predictable Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(4), pages 560-595, September.
    13. Jieming Zhu, 2002. "Urban Development under Ambiguous Property Rights: A Case of China’s Transition Economy," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 41-57, March.
    14. Chris Webster & Lawrence W.-C. Lai, 2003. "Property Rights, Planning and Markets," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2625.
    15. Mantzavinos,C., 2001. "Individuals, Institutions, and Markets," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521773584, October.
    16. Lin, Justin Yifu, 1992. "Rural Reforms and Agricultural Growth in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 34-51, March.
    17. Gordon White & Robert Wade, 1988. "Developmental States and Markets in East Asia: An Introduction," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Gordon White (ed.), Developmental States in East Asia, chapter 1, pages 1-29, Palgrave Macmillan.
    18. Aram, John D. & Xiaoli, Wang, 1991. "Lessons from Chinese state economic reform," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 29-46.
    19. Wei, Shang-Jin & Wang, Tao, 1997. "The siamese twins: Do state-owned banks favor state-owned enterprises in China?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 19-29.
    20. Matthews, R C O, 1986. "The Economics of Institutions and the," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(384), pages 903-918, December.
    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. Ya Ping Wang & Yanglin Wang & Jiansheng Wu, 2009. "Urbanization and Informal Development in China: Urban Villages in Shenzhen," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 957-973, December.
    2. Yuan, Quan & Zhu, Jiren, 2019. "Logistics sprawl in Chinese metropolises: Evidence from Wuhan," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 242-252.
    3. Jiang Xu & Anthony Yeh & Fulong Wu, 2009. "Land Commodification: New Land Development and Politics in China since the Late 1990s," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 890-913, December.
    4. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing, 2009. "Securing property rights in transition: Lessons from implementation of China's rural land contracting law," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 22-38, May.
    5. Man Li & JunJie Wu & Xiangzheng Deng, 2013. "Identifying Drivers of Land Use Change in China: A Spatial Multinomial Logit Model Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(4), pages 632-654.
    6. Wen Wang & Fangzhi Ye, 2016. "The Political Economy of Land Finance in China," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 91-110, June.
    7. Shang, Juan & Li, Pengfei & Li, Ling & Chen, Yong, 2018. "The relationship between population growth and capital allocation in urbanization," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 249-256.
    8. Li Tian, 2014. "Property Rights, Land Values and Urban Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15856.
    9. Qingke Yang & Xuejun Duan & Lei Wang, 2017. "Spatial–Temporal Patterns and Driving Factors of Rapid Urban Land Development in Provincial China: A Case Study of Jiangsu," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-15, December.
    10. Zan Yang & Shuping Wu, 2019. "Land acquisition outcome, developer risk attitude and land development timing," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 233-271, August.

    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. Jieming Zhu & Yan Guo, 2014. "Fragmented Peri-urbanisation Led by Autonomous Village Development under Informal Institution in High-density Regions: The Case of Nanhai, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(6), pages 1120-1145, May.
    2. Jieming Zhu & Tingting Hu, 2009. "Disordered Land-Rent Competition in China's Periurbanization: Case Study of Beiqijia Township, Beijing," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(7), pages 1629-1646, July.
    3. Xu, Cheng-Gang, 2010. "The Institutional Foundations of China?s Reforms and Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 7654, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Olsson, Ola, 2000. "A Microeconomic Analysis of Institutions," Working Papers in Economics 25, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    5. Edwin Buitelaar, 2004. "A Transaction-cost Analysis of the Land Development Process," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(13), pages 2539-2553, December.
    6. Chenggang Xu, 2011. "The Fundamental Institutions of China's Reforms and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1076-1151, December.
    7. Barrie Needham & Arno Segeren & Edwin Buitelaar, 2011. "Institutions in Theories of Land Markets: Illustrated by the Dutch Market for Agricultural Land," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(1), pages 161-176, January.
    8. Jieming Zhu, 2004. "From Land Use Right to Land Development Right: Institutional Change in China's Urban Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(7), pages 1249-1267, June.
    9. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055, October.
    10. Webster, Chris & Wu, Fulong & Zhang, Fangzhu & Sarkar, Chinmoy, 2016. "Informality, property rights, and poverty in China’s “favelas”," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 461-476.
    11. Paavola, Jouni & Adger, W. Neil, 2005. "Institutional ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 353-368, May.
    12. Christoph Engel, 2006. "The Difficult Reception of Rigorous Descriptive Social Science in the Law," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2006_1, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    13. Thomas Vendryes, 2014. "Peasants Against Private Property Rights: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 971-995, December.
    14. Bhatt, Vipul & Liao, Mouhua & Zhao, Min Qiang, 2023. "Government policy and land price dynamics: A quantitative assessment of China’s factor market reforms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    15. Carlisle Ford Runge, 1984. "Strategic Interdependence in Models of Property Rights," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(5), pages 807-813.
    16. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2011. "Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9624.
    17. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2011. "Appropriation, violent enforcement, and transaction costs: a critical survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 227-253, April.
    18. Dieter Schmidtchen, "undated". "Wettbewerbsfreiheit, Per se Verbote und die Rule of Reason – Anmerkungen zum institutionenökonomisch-evolutionären Wettbewerbsleitbild
      Freedom to compete, per se rules and the rule of reason – Re      ," German Working Papers in Law and Economics 2006-1-1159, Berkeley Electronic Press.
    19. Alessandro Morselli, 2021. "Rationality, Information Power and Institutional Theory," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 12(2).
    20. Williamson, Oliver E., 1995. "Some uneasiness with the Coase Theorem: Comment," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 9-11, May.

    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:urbstu:v:42:y:2005:i:8:p:1369-1390. 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: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.