Author Description

According to statistics of the United Nations, the world counted 4.07 billion people in 1975 and reached 6.46 billion in 2005. It is expected that in 2030 the world population will reach 8.19 billion. By considering these figures the number of cities with five million inhabitants and more, which was about 40 in 2001, will rise up to 58 in 2015. This fast growth of world population causes international development institutions and world politics to face great challenges. In order to answer how governance and public policy affect urban and economic growth economists have developed theories of city systems since the mid-1970s. How institutions can boost and restrain both urban and economic development and how economic development and urbanization intersect with or define eachother, will be the main issues in this book. Starting with theories of systems of cities, this work demonstrates China¿s distinctive features as well as the outcomes of its urbanization.