Land Consolidation in China – A critical Review
Please cite the paper as:
“Wang Qianyi, Cheong Kee Cheok, Zarinah Binti Yusof, (2013), Land Consolidation in China - A critical Review, World Economics Association (WEA) Conferences, No. 3 2013, Conference on the Inequalities in Asia, 27th May to 12th July 2013”
Abstract
China’s growth, after the early years, has been built on industrial development in a model of unbalanced growth. This has left the rural areas trailing urban areas in development. Rural residents earn less than urban residents, have inferior physical infrastructure, and suffer poor basic amenities. These disparities have led to extensive rural-urban migration. This migration, by leaving residences unoccupied, has exacerbated inefficiencies in rural land use. The Chinese government correctly perceives the need to redress this challenge, and sees land consolidation as the appropriate approach not only to rationalize land use but also as an important component of rural development. This approach, together with a number of consolidation models, has been endorsed by many scholars. While we agree that reducing inefficiency in land use is an important policy objective in its own right, our review shows the current approach by the government suffers from major deficiencies