This book explains the relationships between equality and efficiency as well as between
government and market in urban-rural and regional development by providing theoretical
frameworks and empirical evidence. Urban-rural development in China is understood from a
regional perspective while the core issue of urban-rural and regional development is
cross-regional resource reallocation driven by the trends of globalization marketization and
urbanization and their influence on growth and inequality. The book puts forward the following
arguments: An urban-rural and regional balance should not be achieved by limiting agglomeration
effects in eastern regions. For some time now China has lacked a suitable mechanism to enable
residents in underdeveloped and rural areas to share in the achievements of economic
agglomeration. As a result China should not slow down economic agglomeration and development
in eastern regions simply by depending on administrative means to balance urban-rural and
regional development. In the final analysis arriving at a regional balance depends on growth
in the eastern regions provided a reasonable mechanism is implemented to enable inland areas
to share in the development achievements of eastern regions. In turn finding an urban-regional
balance rests on urban development as long as more rural workers can move to and prosper in
cities.
