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Prof. Fanny M. Cheung (left) and Prof. Ruixue Jia (right)
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Seminar on “When History Matters Little: Political Hierarchy & Regional Development in China, AD1000–2000”
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When History Matters Little: Political Hierarchy and Regional Development in China,
AD1000–2000
21 January 2019 | 12:30–14:00 | Room 505, Esther Lee Building, CUHK
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Speaker
Prof. Ruixue Jia
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Assistant Professor, School of Global Policy & Strategy, University of California, San Diego
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Moderator
Prof. Fanny M. Cheung
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Pro-Vice-Chancellor, CUHK; Convenor, Policy Research @ HKIAPS
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Because regime changes in China between AD 1000 and 2000 systematically altered the relative importance of different regions in the political hierarchy, tracing the evolution of Chinese provincial capitals and economic activities during this period sheds light on how political factors can shape the economic geography of a place. In the seminar, Prof. Jia employed a panel dataset of 261 prefectures to show that while a prefecture definitely benefits from gaining provincial capital status in terms of population density and urbanization, the economic advantage of a provincial capital prefecture shrinks greatly after capital status is lost—implying that history does not always matter.
Prof. Jia further explained that it is not only public offices but also important factors of production, such as human capital and transportation networks, that alter their geographical location with a change in provincial capital status. Hence, provincial capitals cannot simply be regarded as consumption-intensive “parasite cities”, and the state can play a critical role in overcoming economic inertia in a particular location by providing infrastructure.
At the end of the seminar, Prof. Jia concluded that the study provided an opportunity to uncover how politics has shaped economic geography. She said that it has proven that a glorious past matters little to a region once it has moved down the political hierarchy. She pointed out that by documenting when history matters little, why history matters can be better understood: history would matter more if the state lacked the incentive to relocate a capital.
Around 30 faculty members and researchers attended the seminar.
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