ABSTRACT
China’s process of transforming itself from a rural to an urban economy has been accelerated since 1978 when economic reforms were initiated due to rapid economic growth. This chapter examines how the Chinese urban population was related to economic development in the reform era in both time-series and cross-section formats. We find that (i) the rising national urbanization is basically caused by economic growth, and no feedback is observed; and (ii) the level of urbanization in a province is too determined by its level of economic development, along with geographic and historical factors.
