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Landscape Urbanization and Economic Growth in China: Positive Feedbacks and Sustainability Dilemmas

[Image: see text] Accelerating urbanization has been viewed as an important instrument for economic development and reducing regional income disparity in some developing countries, including China. Recent studies (Bloom et al. 2008) indicate that demographic urbanization level has no causal effect o...

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Autores principales: Bai, Xuemei, Chen, Jing, Shi, Peijun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Chemical Society 2011
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3251221/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22103244
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es202329f
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author Bai, Xuemei
Chen, Jing
Shi, Peijun
author_facet Bai, Xuemei
Chen, Jing
Shi, Peijun
author_sort Bai, Xuemei
collection PubMed
description [Image: see text] Accelerating urbanization has been viewed as an important instrument for economic development and reducing regional income disparity in some developing countries, including China. Recent studies (Bloom et al. 2008) indicate that demographic urbanization level has no causal effect on economic growth. However, due to the varying and changing definition of urban population, the use of demographic indicators as a sole representing indicator for urbanization might be misleading. Here, we re-examine the causal relationship between urbanization and economic growth in Chinese cities and provinces in recent decades, using built-up areas as a landscape urbanization indicator. Our analysis shows that (1) larger cities, both in terms of population size and built-up area, and richer cities tend to gain more income, have larger built-up area expansion, and attract more population, than poorer cities or smaller cities; and (2) that there is a long-term bidirectional causality between urban built-up area expansion and GDP per capita at both city and provincial level, and a short-term bidirectional causality at provincial level, revealing a positive feedback between landscape urbanization and urban and regional economic growth in China. Our results suggest that urbanization, if measured by a landscape indicator, does have causal effect on economic growth in China, both within the city and with spillover effect to the region, and that urban land expansion is not only the consequences of economic growth in cities, but also drivers of such growth. The results also suggest that under its current economic growth model, it might be difficult for China to control urban expansion without sacrificing economic growth, and China’s policy to stop the loss of agricultural land, for food security, might be challenged by its policy to promote economic growth through urbanization.
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spelling pubmed-32512212012-01-04 Landscape Urbanization and Economic Growth in China: Positive Feedbacks and Sustainability Dilemmas Bai, Xuemei Chen, Jing Shi, Peijun Environ Sci Technol [Image: see text] Accelerating urbanization has been viewed as an important instrument for economic development and reducing regional income disparity in some developing countries, including China. Recent studies (Bloom et al. 2008) indicate that demographic urbanization level has no causal effect on economic growth. However, due to the varying and changing definition of urban population, the use of demographic indicators as a sole representing indicator for urbanization might be misleading. Here, we re-examine the causal relationship between urbanization and economic growth in Chinese cities and provinces in recent decades, using built-up areas as a landscape urbanization indicator. Our analysis shows that (1) larger cities, both in terms of population size and built-up area, and richer cities tend to gain more income, have larger built-up area expansion, and attract more population, than poorer cities or smaller cities; and (2) that there is a long-term bidirectional causality between urban built-up area expansion and GDP per capita at both city and provincial level, and a short-term bidirectional causality at provincial level, revealing a positive feedback between landscape urbanization and urban and regional economic growth in China. Our results suggest that urbanization, if measured by a landscape indicator, does have causal effect on economic growth in China, both within the city and with spillover effect to the region, and that urban land expansion is not only the consequences of economic growth in cities, but also drivers of such growth. The results also suggest that under its current economic growth model, it might be difficult for China to control urban expansion without sacrificing economic growth, and China’s policy to stop the loss of agricultural land, for food security, might be challenged by its policy to promote economic growth through urbanization. American Chemical Society 2011-11-21 2012-01-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3251221/ /pubmed/22103244 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es202329f Text en Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society http://pubs.acs.org This is an open-access article distributed under the ACS AuthorChoice Terms & Conditions. Any use of this article, must conform to the terms of that license which are available at http://pubs.acs.org.
spellingShingle Bai, Xuemei
Chen, Jing
Shi, Peijun
Landscape Urbanization and Economic Growth in China: Positive Feedbacks and Sustainability Dilemmas
title Landscape Urbanization and Economic Growth in China: Positive Feedbacks and Sustainability Dilemmas
title_full Landscape Urbanization and Economic Growth in China: Positive Feedbacks and Sustainability Dilemmas
title_fullStr Landscape Urbanization and Economic Growth in China: Positive Feedbacks and Sustainability Dilemmas
title_full_unstemmed Landscape Urbanization and Economic Growth in China: Positive Feedbacks and Sustainability Dilemmas
title_short Landscape Urbanization and Economic Growth in China: Positive Feedbacks and Sustainability Dilemmas
title_sort landscape urbanization and economic growth in china: positive feedbacks and sustainability dilemmas
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3251221/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22103244
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es202329f
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AT chenjing landscapeurbanizationandeconomicgrowthinchinapositivefeedbacksandsustainabilitydilemmas
AT shipeijun landscapeurbanizationandeconomicgrowthinchinapositivefeedbacksandsustainabilitydilemmas