This thesis investigates income inequality and poverty in urban China using survey data from 2002. It shows that in urban China, income in the coastal region is less equally distributed than in the interior region, although social welfare is higher. Developed cities have more inequality than less developed cities, but they also have a higher level of social welfare. Further decomposition analysis indicates that intragroup inequality accounts for the dominant part of overall inequality no matter how groups are categorized - by region, by city level, by gender, or by education. There is a significant difference in the incidence of poverty between interior regions and coastal regions, with the interior region having a higher headcount ratio and a greater poverty gap ratio. It is also found that developed cities have lower poverty than less developed cities.

This thesis focuses on problems of prices and risks in the housing markets of urban China. What drives the dynamics of housing prices across regions is not only of great interest for academic researchers but also of first importance for policy makers. It is also interesting to pay attention to the issue of housing bubbles at a city level and risk allocations from an institutional view. To address the issues, the thesis applies both qualitative and econometric approaches in analyzing the urban housing markets of China. The first paper reviews articles mainly published in Chinese core journals. The existing studies are mainly concerned with such six topics as institutions, policy, land, finance, price and market. The first three topics involve the public housing allocation system reform, such fiscal and monetary tools as tax and interest rate, and the land reserve system. The housing finance treats such subjects of mortgages, bubbles and financial systems, while housing prices explore factors such as land prices, construction cost and exogenous forces like income. Finally, the housing market addresses housing circles and the relationship between housing demand and supply. In paper 2, the housing price dynamics is investigated at a national level and across regions by using the panel data with 30 provinces over 7 years (2001-2007). The empirical results suggest that the estimates for the fundamentals of income, user cost, housing stock and employment are robust at a national level, implying that there exists a stationary equilibrium relation in the long run between the housing price and the fundamentals above. The speed of price adjustment varies considerably across regions in the East, Midland and West. Then the housing markets in Beijing and Shanghai are examined in Paper 3 to quantify possible existence of a bubble in the two metropolitan areas. This article uses an integrated strategy involved with such fundamentals as interest rates, rent, income and GDP. The results show that Beijing might have been on the way of forming a housing price bubble between 2005 and 2008, and that there possibly existed a bubble in Shanghai from 2003 to 2004. By comparing the risk allocation in China with that in Sweden, Paper 4 explores the difference of actual risks taken by various actors. The banks and governments appear to take more risks in China, especially as the Chinese developers have a weaker financial situation than in Sweden. Households have more choices to reduce the risk by purchasing various kinds of insurance products and also by binding the interest rate. / <p>QC 20100720</p>

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

In contemporary society with housing construction in full swing, ‘Gated Community’ has become a new phenomenon that soundlessly changing the way people lives. ‘Gated’ means ‘safe’ and ‘private’, but it is also associated with ‘segregation’ and ‘differentiation’. This contradictory concept has rich connotations that are concerning not only physical space and urban structure but also social stability and economical fairness, etc. To have better understanding of Gated Communities and their impacts, the dissertation has taken Wuhan, one of the famous metropolises in China, as an illustration. Through observing the quality of physical environment (size and scale, boundary form and environment, road system, public facilities, and open space), analyzing the relationship between public space and private sector, and evaluating process of property development and management, we learnt that huge-sized GCs led incompleteness of urban branch road system, making urban structure fragmented, and income-based segregation contributed to many social problems as well as unreasonable allocation of public faculties, etc. Based on these evaluations, many optimization strategies have been formulated. For example, from spatial perspective, we can relief this situation through scale and size control, mixed land use, boundary optimization, social integration and policy formulation. From administrative perspective, current land leasing mode needs to be changed into a better-planned one. The development rights, property rights, and management responsibilities need to be clearly divided and some affordable housing strategies need to be adopted, etc. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

No description available.

published_or_final_version / China Development Studies / Master / Master of Arts in China Development Studies

Chinese cities have been experiencing significant growth and profound socioeconomic transition since late 1970’s. Reform and development on institution arrangement for land, which is one of the basic production elements, have been the core issue for the strategies of establishing market economy and urbanization. Land banking was a mechanism initiated in western European cities for directing urban development in early 1900’s. Under this mechanism land is resumed by public authorized organizations and will be held for future use to implement public land use policies. Some Chinese cities began their own land banking operation in the 1990’s. After nearly 20 years of introduction of land banking mechanism to China most of the cities and counties are now practicing this mechanism in their land management and supply framework. This study attempts to explore land banking mechanism and its effects on urban development comprehensively in lights of theories of new institutional economics and urban spatial structure applying the diachronic public policy analytical framework. Guangzhou, the third largest city and the first city to practice land banking mechanism, is taken as the study area. Spatial data for land supply records since introduction of land banking mechanism are collected and processed with GIS software. Archives in Guangzhou Construction Archive covering the land development and planning administration in Guangzhou were studied to facilitate in-depth understanding of the mechanism. Related statistics data, regulations, planning proposals, internal reports and were obtained to facilitate this study. Review on evolution of land banking mechanism in China and comparison of related regulations at state and local levels argue that the introduction of land banking mechanism into China has lead to institutional changes in the land development process by integrating western experience and local characteristics. Applying empirical transaction costs analysis on institutional models of major land supply mechanisms in China, this research illustrated that land banking mechanism has resulted in re-distribution of transaction costs of the land supply process, which reduces the transaction costs from the perspective land use right (LUR) users. However, for a specific case of land supply, overall transaction costs would increase under land banking mechanism compared to other land supply mechanisms. Exploration on data collected through GIS analysis illustrated that land banking mechanism strengthens city government’s capacity to instruct changes in both macro level urban form and micro level built environment. Analysis on statistics data and budgetary reports of Guangzhou Municipal Government demonstrates that with land banking mechanism gains of LUR conveyance are providing supplement income for the city government, which is approximately 30% of the traditional tax-based fiscal income. Financing values of Guangzhou city’s land bank are developed by land banking loans and establishment of the urban development financing platform. Supplement fiscal income and financing values of land banking greatly improve local governments’ leading role in urbanization process mainly through investment on urban infrastructures. Case study on evolution of Liede village under land banking mechanism illustrates that different land development process and changes of urban form have also lead to rearrangement of socio spatial structure such as significant changes in residential spatial changes. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Based on twenty months of fieldwork in Beijing and Shanghai, my dissertation intends to examine the psycho-boom, or the distinct cultural and social formation that the rise of Western psychotherapy has taken in the new hosting environment of urban China. I argue that the psycho-boom, while involving a new psychological modality or a new mental health profession, should not be narrowly conceived of as such. Instead, it is more akin to a popular movement that blends the elements of professional training, popular healing, consumer fad, and entrepreneurial pursuit. The networks and activities associated with psychotherapy training have constituted a massive social world in which various interests and aspirations can be pursued and realized. I further argue that experiences, either individual or interpersonal, have been a critical element of being in this social world. Many people learn to appreciate the psychological dimensions of experience through participating in it, turning one's involvement with psychotherapy a therapeutic journey in its broadest sense. / Anthropology

published_or_final_version / Surveying / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.