Workshop on East Asia:
Politics, Economy and Society Presents

“Visible Hand or Crippled Hand? Stimulation and Stabilization in China’s Real Estate Markets 2008-2010”

Professor Fubing Su
Department of Political Science, Vassar College

4:00-5:30pm, Tuesday
October 19, 2010
Pick Lounge
5828 South University Ave.
Student coordinator: Jean Lin (jeanlin@uchicago.edu)
Faculty sponsors: Dali Yang and Dingxin Zhao

Abstract:
Economic development in China has fundamentally reshaped its urban landscape. While skyscrapers, highways, luxury apartments and bullet trains have certainly improved the quality of life for many urban residents, there are also clear signs that urbanization in many localities has been captured by increasingly powerful growth coalitions. We argue that changes in the central-local fiscal relations are largely responsible for the rise of land developmentalism in China. We use data from China’s land and housing markets in the 2008 recession to illustrate this dynamics. In particular, we try to explain the apparent implantation gap between the government’s effort to stimulate the markets and their attempt to stabilize the prices.