Title: The Contractual Nature of the City.

Speaker: Qian Lu

Abstract: Urbanization is a process in which separated and dispersed property rights become concentrated in a specific location. This process involves a large volume of contracts to redefine and rearrange various property rights, producing various and high transaction costs. Efficient urbanization implies the reduction of these costs. This paper studies how efficient urbanization reduces transaction costs in the real world, based on a series of contracts rather than the coercive power. Specifically, this paper shows that Jiao long Co. built a city by being a central contractor, which acquired planning rights by contract, and signed a series of tax sharing contracts with government, farmers, tenants, and business enterprises. These contractual arrangements greatly reduced the transaction costs and promoted the development.

About Qian Lu: Qian Lu is an assistant professor at School of Economics, CUFE. He obtained his PhD degree from University of Maryland – College Park. His research interests include institutional economic, economic history, China's reform and institutional change.

Date: Nov, 3rd, 2016

Time: 15:30-17:10 PM

Location: Room 608, Academic Hall, CUFE