Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2015
  • Book

Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism: The Politics of Property Rights under Reform

By: Meg Rithmire
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Land reforms have been critical to the development of Chinese capitalism over the last several decades, yet land in China remains publicly owned. This book explores the political logic of reforms to land ownership and control, accounting for how land development and real estate have become synonymous with economic growth and prosperity in China. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research, this book tracks land reforms and urban development at the national level and in three cities in a single Chinese region. The study reveals that the initial liberalization of land was reversed after China's first contemporary real estate bubble in the early 1990s and that property rights arrangements at the local level varied widely according to different local strategies for economic prosperity and political stability. In particular, the author links fiscal relations and economic bases to property rights regimes, finding that more "open" cities are subject to greater state control over land.

Keywords

Property; China

Citation

Rithmire, Meg. Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism: The Politics of Property Rights under Reform. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Purchase

About The Author

Meg Rithmire

Business, Government and the International Economy
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • December 8, 2022
    • ForeignAffairs.com

    The New China Shock: How Beijing’s Party-State Capitalism Is Changing the Global Economy

    By: Margaret M. Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee S. Tsai
    • December 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (A) and (B)

    By: Meg Rithmire
    • November 2022
    • Faculty Research

    OneSmart

    By: Nien-he Hsieh, Meg Rithmire and Shu Lin
More from the Author
  • The New China Shock: How Beijing’s Party-State Capitalism Is Changing the Global Economy By: Margaret M. Pearson, Meg Rithmire and Kellee S. Tsai
  • Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (A) and (B) By: Meg Rithmire
  • OneSmart By: Nien-he Hsieh, Meg Rithmire and Shu Lin
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College