The Land Development Game in China

By (author) Jianbo Ma

Not available to order

Publication date:

30 November 2012

Length of book:

332 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739169599

The book describes how land plays a central role in the rapid economic growth of a Chinese region (with the fictitious name of “Dragon County”). Concerned with grain self-sufficiency, the national government of China employs a central planning approach to control the amount of farmland to be converted to urban uses each year. However, the scarcity of land development rights creates high incentives for various local players to evade national policies. Supported by a large number of specific examples, the book illustrates how local players adopt many kinds of strategies to engage in informal land development, and how the national government maneuvers its policies such that both farmland protection and economic growth objectives are achieved. The story of Dragon County, though not necessarily representative of other Chinese regions, suggests that the existing land system has worked reasonably well in promoting land use efficiency and economic growth at the same time, but the distributional problems created reflect a strong need for changing the rules of the game.

Chapter 1. Introduction
Part I. The System and the Players
Chapter 2. The Land System
Chapter 3. The National Government
Chapter 4. Local Governments
Chapter 5. The Village
Chapter 6. Farmers
Chapter 7. Developers
Chapter 8. Dispute Settlement Mechanisms
Part II Workings of the System
Chapter 9. Difficulty of Central Planning
Chapter 10. Inevitability of Informal Markets
Chapter 11. Guanxi as an Invisible Hand
Chapter 12. Success of the System
Part III Policy Thoughts
Chapter 13. Scale, Distribution, and Allocation
Chapter 14. Rules and Plays
ANNEX I: List of Fictitious Names
ANNEX II: Maps

The Land Development Game in China is extremely timely, novel in its approach, and well-written. Few topics are as politically charged as land tenure in China, particularly as more and more rural land is requisitioned for urban and commercial development. But the real power of this book is the way that it deals with the on-the-ground realities of a complex subject, from the point of view of farmers, developers, government officials, and other affected parties. It will have a very significant impact on the fields of China Studies, public policy, and natural resources.