CHINA URBAN HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN THE SHIFT FROM REDISTRIBUTION TO DECENTRALIZATION

This paper examines the influence of economic and housing reforms on u rban housing development in China during the early transition from cen tral state redistribution to administrative and fiscal decentralizatio n. In socialist redistributive economies, the central state historical ly favored production investment at the expense of housing investment, monopolized the limited urban housing investment through administrati ve planning, and allocated urban housing as a heavily subsidized redis tributive good. These policies contributed to serious urban housing sh ortages as an entrenched social problem in China. Panel regression ana lysis is used to model determinants of urban housing development in a nearly phase of economic and housing reform. The findings suggest the effects of continuing state redistribution and accelerated decentraliz ation on urban housing development Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.