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Authors: Chao Li (University of Waikato) John Gibson (University of Waikato) Abstract China's local populations can be counted in two ways; by how many people have hukou household registration from each place and by how many people actually reside in each place. The counts differ by the non-hukou migrants - people that move from their place of registration - who have grown from fewer than five million when reform began in 1978 to over 200 million by 2010. For most of the first three decades of the reform era, the hukou count was used to produce per capita GDP figures. In coastal provinces the resident count is many millions more than the hukou count, while for migrant-sending provinces it is the reverse, creating a systematic and time-varying distortion in provincial GDP per capita. Moreover, a sharp discontinuity occurred when provinces recently switched from the hukou count to the resident count when reporting GDP per capita. A double-count also resulted because some provinces switched before others and initial resident counts were incomplete. This paper describes the changing definition of provincial populations in China and their impact on inequality in provincial GDP per capita. We show that much of the apparent increase in inter-provincial inequality disappears once a consistent series of GDP per resident is used.

Sur le site "The Urban China Initiaitve" 4/05/2012 By Li Jing ( China Daily) Urban leaders do more to safeguard environment, conserve resources Small and medium-sized cities are more livable than big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai gauged by their air quality, waste treatment capacity and built environment, according to newly published research by Urban China Initiative. A woman rides a bicycle on a windy day in Beijing. According to recently published research by Urban China Initiative, Beijing and Shanghai were absent from a ranking of the top 10 Chinese cities gauged by their environmental sustainability. [Photo/China Daily] UCI, a think tank launched by Tsinghua University, McKinsey & Co and Columbia University, gauged the sustainability of 112 major Chinese cities using 17 indicators in four categories - society, economy, environment and resources. Beijing ranked first in sustainability thanks to its heavy investment in social welfare - including social security, education and healthcare - and its economic achievements. The top 10 cities in overall score - including Xiamen, Fujian province, Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, Dalian in Liaoning province, and Shanghai - are all medium and large-sized cities. However, small and medium-sized cities are taking the lead in environmental sustainability. Both Beijing and Shanghai were absent from the top 10 in this category. According to the research, Haikou has the best air quality, while Hefei, capital of Anhui province, took the lead in waste treatment facilities. And Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, boasts the best built environment - man-made surroundings that serve as the setting for human activity. "Such a result shows that small cities have a better quality of life, though people living in megacities like Beijing and Shanghai have better access to medical and educational resources," said Jonathan Woetzel, co-chair of UCI, as well as a senior global dir

Wei Yang, Panos Kanavos Abstract Background Health inequality has been recognized as a problem all over the world. In China, the poor usually have less access to healthcare than the better-off, despite having higher levels of need. Since the proportion of the Chinese population living in urban areas increased tremendously with the urbanization movements, attention has been paid to the association between urban/rural residence and population health. It is important to understand the variation in health across income groups, and in particular to take into account the effects of urban/rural residence on the degree of income-related health inequalities. Methods This paper empirically assesses the magnitude of rural/urban disparities in income-related adult health status, i.e., self-assessed health (SAH) and physical activity limitation, using Concentration Indices. It then uses decomposition methods to unravel the causes of inequalities and their variations across urban and rural populations. Data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) 2006 are used. Results The study finds that the poor are less likely to report their health status as "excellent or good" and are more likely to have physical activity limitation. Such inequality is more pronounced for the urban population than for the rural population. Results from the decomposition analysis suggest that, for the urban population, 76.47 per cent to 79.07 per cent of inequalities are driven by non-demographic/socioeconomic-related factors, among which income, job status and educational level are the most important factors. For the rural population, 48.19 per cent to 77.78 per cent of inequalities are driven by non-demographic factors. Income and educational attainment appear to have a prominent influence on inequality.

In common with other major economic centres in China, Shanghai's energy consumption has been increasing rapidly to support the high growth rate of its economy. To achieve rational, efficient and clean use of energy, together with improved environmental quality within the city, the Shanghai municipal government has decided to expand the supply and utilization of natural gas. Shanghai plans to increase the share of natural gas in its primary energy mix to 7 per cent by 2010, up from 3 per cent in 2005. This increase in natural gas demand has to be matched with a corresponding increase in supply. To date, the Shanghai region has relied on offshore extracted natural gas but this supply is limited due to the size of the reserves. Since 2005, the West-East pipeline has provided an alternative for Shanghai but demands from other regions could reduce the potential for expanding supplies from that source. Since domestic production will not be sufficient to meet demand in the near future, Shanghai is building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal at the Yangshan deep-water port that would allow an additional supply of more than 3 billion cubic meters per year of natural gas. Malaysia has already committed to supply LNG to the Shanghai terminal at a price that is significantly higher than the wholesale "city-gate" price for natural gas transported via pipeline, but still lower than the gas price to end-use consumers. The presence of both an LNG terminal and a transmission pipeline that connects Shanghai to domestic gas-producing regions will create gas-on-gas competition. This study assesses the benefits of introducing such competition to one of China's most advanced cities under various scenarios for demand growth. In this paper, the impact of imported LNG on market concentration in Shanghai's gas market will be analysed using the Herfindahl-Hirschmann index (HHI) and the residual supply index (RSI). Our results show that Shanghai remains a supply-constrained

Full Text available. As some of the most rapidly urbanizing places in the world, China's cities have a unique relationship with global climate change. The economies found in Chinese cities are extremely resource and energy intensive; as a result, they produce significant levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article provides comprehensive and detailed emissions inventories for Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin, which were found to be responsible for 12.8, 10.7, and 11.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita (t CO2-eq/capita), respectively, in 2006. The majority of emissions were from electricity production, heating and industrial fuel use, and ground transportation. The prevalence of coal in the energy supply mix (including up to 98% in Tianjin) was a fundamental cause of high energy emissions. Non-energy emissions from industrial processes were also significant, including emissions from cement and steel production. The GHG inventories for Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin point to sectors requiring the most attention in terms of low-carbon growth. Compared to ten other global cities, Chinese cities are among the highest per capita emitters, alluding to the important challenge China faces of reducing emissions while improving the quality of life for urban residents. Accordingly, this article concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and issues concerning low-carbon growth in China, including the potential for renewable energy and the difficulties associated with emissions relocation and policy adoption.

Abstract The large cities such as London, New York and Shanghai are tended to create lots of employment opportunities, but per capita carbon emissions are huge. It is a vital problem about how to provide enough employment opportunities and reduce per capita carbon emissions during the process of urbanization in China. The main of this article think "the Zipf-type city system in area "can achieve the goal of "efficiency and low carbine".

Thématique n° 2 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Lynn Price, Nan Zhou, David Fridleya, Stephanie Ohshitaa, Hongyou Lua,Nina Zhenga, Cecilia Fino-Chen Paru dans : Habitat International, Available online 28 January 2012 Abstract In 2009, China committed to reducing its carbon dioxide intensity (CO2/unit of gross domestic product, GDP) by 40-45% by 2020 from a s2005 baseline and in March 2011, China's 12th Five-Year Plan established a carbon intensity reduction goal of 17% between 2011 and 2015. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China then established a Low Carbon City policy and announced the selection of 5 provinces and 8 cities to pilot the low carbon development work. How to determine if a city or province is "low carbon" has not been defined by the Chinese government. Macro-level indicators of low carbon development, such as energy use or CO2 emissions per unit of GDP or per capita may be too aggregated to be meaningful measurements of whether a city or province is truly "low carbon". Instead, indicators based on energy end-use sectors (industry, residential, commercial, transport, electric power) offer a better approach for defining "low carbon" and for taking action to reduce energy-related carbon emissions. This report presents and tests a methodology for the development of a low carbon indicator system at the provincial and city level, providing initial results for an end-use low carbon indicator system, based on data available at the provincial and municipal levels. The report begins with a discussion of macro-level indicators that are typically used for inter-city, regional, or inter-country comparisons. It then turns to a discussion of the methodology used to develop a more robust low carbon indicator for China. The report presents the results of this indicator with examples for 6 selected provinces and cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Shanxi, Shandong, Guangdong, and Hubei). The repor

June 23rd, 2012 Author: Kam Wing Chan, University of Washington "Last year, for the first time in Chinese history more people lived in cities and towns than in the countryside. Some 690 million urban dwellers now account for 51.3 per cent of China's total population. Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz has said this urban transition will be one of the two main forces shaping the world in the 21st century...."

June 23rd, 2012 Author: Kam Wing Chan, University of Washington Last year, for the first time in Chinese history more people lived in cities and towns than in the countryside. Some 690 million urban dwellers now account for 51.3 per cent of China's total population. Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz has said this urban transition will be one of the two main forces shaping the world in the 21st century.

We examine the effects of the firm contribution rate and individual contribution rate on the per capita income growth rate, population growth rate, saving rate and education expense rate.

China's sustained economic growth since 1978 has stimulated heated debates not only about its rise to great power status but also the sustainability of the Chinese 'model' of development and its social, economic and environmental implications at home and abroad (see e.g. Pei, 2006; Peerenboom, 2007; Bergsten et al., 2008; Zhao, 2010). One of the most important aspects of China's economic development is the accompanying rapid urbanisation. The McKinsey Global Institute (2011: 15) characterised China's urbanisation a 'massive transformation'. Although China's 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP) only sets the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate at 7% (as compared with a planned 7.5% and the actual 11.2% growth in the previous 11th FYP), the planned growth in urban population will increase by 4% per annum from 2010 to 2015, hence raising the urbanisation rate from 47.5% to 51.5% (The State Council, 2011: 10). China's growth has, however, been marked by unbalanced regional development in the past three decades as most of the coastal cities and regions are spearheading rapid growth while inland and rural areas are lagging behind. Part of this is the clear outcome of deliberate national policies in the 1980s as the coastal regions should supposedly have been championing growth for the entire country (see e.g. Yang, 1997; Lin, 1999). However, by the 1990s, there were clear concerns that such a pattern was neither sustainable nor desirable. The changing role of the Chinese state in urban and regional development is the key theme underlying this special issue. The papers assembled here address different aspects of this multifaceted process that is still unfolding. Since the launching of the reform and open door policy in 1978, China has embarked upon the transition from a planned economy to a more market-oriented system that is increasingly integrated with the global capitalist economy. Decentralisation of economic policy powers from Beijing to local governments at the

DOI : http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.apgeog.2011.11.006 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Kai-ya Wu, Hao Zhang Paru dans : Applied Geography, Volume 34, May 2012, Pages 137-145 Abstract In this study, Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province in eastern China was selected as a case study. Based on time series Landsat MSS/TM/ETM + imagery and historical census data, analysis of the relationship between land use dynamics, built-up land expansion patterns, and underlying driving forces from 1978 to 2008 was performed, using an integrated approach of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques and statistical methods. The results showed that rapid expansion of built-up land in the Hangzhou Metropolitan Area (HMA) led to accelerated land use conversion. The built-up land increased from 319.3 km2 in 1978 to 862.5 km2 in 2008. Expansion patterns of built-up land in the HMA were essentially characterized by axial expansion centered on the former city proper before 1991. In 1996 and 2001, two significant administrative division adjustments for the former city proper and two neighboring municipalities occurred. This led to the success in implementing strategies of "frog-leaping development along the Qiantang River" and "crossing the Qiantang River and developing southward". Spatially, a closer linkage between the former city proper and two neighboring municipalities was established. Consequently, rapid development of infrastructures, facilities, intensive industrial parks, and urban and rural settlements along the Qiantang River resulted in the eastward and southward expansion of built-up land. Thus, from 1991 to 2008 the model of urban expansion resulted in a multi-nuclei pattern. Furthermore, as shown with detailed analysis, the growth pattern of built-up land of the HMA is highly correlated with socio-economic factors, including the gross domestic product (GDP), per capita disposable income, popul

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Nesru H. Koroso, Paul van der Molen, Arbind. M. Tuladhar, Jaap A. Zevenbergen Paru dans : Land Use Policy, Volume 30, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 417-426 Abstract This research investigates whether the process of transfers of urban land use rights in China, particularly where the state plays a major role in the transfer of urban land, complies with basic principles of good governance. In order to assess market, an assessment framework is developed. A critical analysis of secondary data from official and non-official sources is done. Major changes since late 1980s in the institutional environment and subsequent results have been assessed. The findings reveal that the transfer of urban land use rights in China is gradually responding to an improved governance system. Institutional reforms have led to a steady improvement in indicators such as transparency, efficiency, and access to information. Nonetheless, the market has significant weaknesses in addressing equity issues, engaging stakeholders, tackling corruption and dealing with expropriations. In general, the paper finds that the efficiency and effectiveness of the urban land market largely depends not on the type of tenure regime per sé, but rather on the system of governance in place. Highlights ► Based on existing data sources, this paper analyses the performance of the market for urban land use rights in China. ► The assessment framework is based on governance principles like equity, participation, access to information, efficiency, and transparency. ► The result is that the market needs improvements regarding governance principles. ► However, a positive impact of the efforts of the government to improve can be observed.

Posted by Kate Mackenzie on Aug 30 14:09. In our first post in this series, we examined the widely-held belief that China's steel demand will continue to rise at a rapid rate. FT Alphaville, along with others, contend that such forecasts are on shaky ground. This is, in part, because of the dubiousness of one of the underlying assumptions: that China will rapidly urbanise more of its population. (Here's a very recent example of this argument, from Stephen Roach.) The proportion Chinese living in urban areas just passed the 50 per cent mark in the past year but, the story goes, there is more to come. This will in turn mean more industrialisation, more modernisation, a bigger and consuming middle class and of course more GDP growth. In other words: [...] farmers who once led simple, subsistence-level lives now become factory and service workers in the city, reside in apartments furnished with appliances, occasionally eat out, and perhaps even send their kids to college. In the process, self-sufficient rural households are transformed into workers receiving higher wages and participating in the commodity economy of consumption. As such, urbanization is as much an economic and social transformation as it is a spatial and demographic process. Sounds great doesn't it? The above quote however comes from a paper by Kam Wing Chan in Eurasian Geography and Economics early this year. Chan is a professor of geography at the University of Washington, and he doesn't agree that this is how things will continue to play out for China.

This paper estimates the effect of access to transportation networks on regional economic outcomes in China over a twenty-period of rapid income growth. It addresses the problem of the endogenous placement of networks by exploiting the fact that these networks tend to connect historical cities.[BREAD Working Paper No. 325]. URL:[http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/working/325.pdf].