Producer Services in China : Economic and Urban Development

In the past three decades, China has experienced an unprecedented pace of economic and urban development. It’s economy is now transforming from one based on manufacturing industries towards the producer services, with the importance of these services in the national and regional economy being recognized by economists and policy makers alike. With growing demand and policy support, producer services are expected to expand rapidly, leading to a new wave of economic and urban development in China.

This groundbreaking volume is one of the first to address questions related to the development of these services in China. The contributions explore a wide range of associated topics including the characteristics of the growth of producer services and how this is related to China’s economic and urban transition, the distribution of these services amongst Chinese cities, as well as drawing comparison between producer service development in China and Western counterparts. This volume also discusses the dynamics of the development of these services in China and how the political-economic embeddedness of China has shaped the development of producer services. Finally, the consequences of this growth and how the economy and urban space have change in response is explored, as well as the challenges Chinese cities face in moving towards a service economy, and how this can inform future public policies.

This volume addresses the pressing need to understand the economic and urban changes in post-industrial China to allow appropriate strategies and policies to formulated to facilitate future development in China. The text is rich with statistical data and diagrams, providing original contributions and a cutting edge overview. This timely publication will be of interest to upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers interested in China, Urban Studies and Economic Development.

Anthony G.O. Yeh is Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Director of the Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning, Director of the GIS Research Centre, and former Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Hong Kong.

Fiona F. Yang is Post-doctoral Fellow of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, the University of Hong Kong. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Hong Kong, a BSc and an MSc in Geography and Urban Planning from Sun Yat-Sen University, China.