This paper explains the reasons behind the growing social tension and increased number of conflicts in China after a good performance in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. In this paper, we map out the issues with old urbanization (1978–2014) and the problems unsolved by past policy, and analyse whether the new policy changes introduced by the New Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) may help to deal with those problems. We argue that the tensions that evolve into conflicts are often a result of unaddressed social anxiety. Using money to purchase social stability can only be part of the solution. There need to be more serious attempts to improve governance, which involve: improving multi-level governance and inter-regional coordination, enhancing policy transparency and rule by law, adjusting the level of redistribution, and integrating rural and urban community governance structures.

There is ample evidence of a "democracy premium." Using field data and laboratory experiments, it has been observed that democratic governance leads to more cooperative behavior compared to a non-democratic approach. We present evidence from Chinese students and workers who participated in public goods experiments and a value survey. We find a premium for top-down rule implementation arguably stemming from people with stronger individual values for obeying authorities. When participants have higher values for obeying authorities, they even conform to unfavorable rules. Our findings provide evidence that the effectiveness of a political institution depends on its congruence with individual values and societal norms.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between farm size and agricultural production efficiency from the aspects of output and profit in order to find an optimal farm size that achieves both output and profit efficiency in agricultural production in China. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the 2012 China Family Panel Studies survey data and employs the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) models to investigate empirically the relationship between farm size and agricultural production efficiency. Findings The study finds that there is an inverted-U curve relationship between farm size and output efficiency and a U-shaped curve relationship between farm size and profit efficiency in agricultural production in China. Based on the empirical results, the study estimates that the appropriate farm size is around 10–40 mu and the optimal farm size is around 20–40 mu both in terms of output efficiency and profit efficiency in Chinese agricultural production under the current agricultural technology and land management system. Practical implications The findings of this study suggest that appropriate land consolidation will bring more benefits to farmer households and agricultural production efficiency. There are some policy implications. First, governments should give long term and more stable land using rights to farmers through extending the period of land contract and verifying land using rights. Second, governments should encourage transfers of land using rights and promote land consolidation. But the implementation of this policy should consider regional differences and not be used for blindly pursuing increasing land size. Third, land consolidation should be accompanied with the development of specialized agricultural services. Originality/value The paper makes two major contributions to the literature. First, the authors use the SFA model to investigate the relationship between land size and agricultural production efficiency. Second, the authors establish two SFA models – the stochastic frontier output analysis model and the stochastic frontier profit analysis model – to estimate the optimal land size to achieve both output and profit efficiency of agricultural production in China.

China launched a new urbanisation programme for the period of 2014–2020. The new urbanisation programme will produce positive impacts on China's social and economic development through focusing on integrated urban and rural development, creating city clusters and promoting sustainable urban development. However, the new urbanisation programme may also bring some new social and economic problems, like widening the gap in urban development between different regions in China, leading to the formation of a new urban poor class, based on the current design and implementation. To minimise the negative effect, we suggest to better deal with the relationships between market and government and between economic and social development in the process of urbanisation. We argue that the key is to allow the market to determine the flows of capital, land and people in the process of urbanisation so as to achieve a sustainable development of China's urbanisation.

The adjustment of industrial structure is an important engine driving the economic growth. The relationship between industrial structure evolution and economic growth is characterized by various stages. The article uses the data of 31 provincial units in China from 1978 to 2016 as a sample, divided into five stages with time as nodes, and takes the rationalization and optimization of industrial structure (OIS) as indicators to measure the adjustment of industrial structure. The main research conclusions are obtained through cointegration test, Granger test and simultaneous equation model. Results indicate that the relationship between OIS and economic growth shows the characteristics of mutual influence, while the rationalization of industrial structure unilaterally affects economic growth. Rationalization of industrial structure has significantly stimulated economic growth, especially in the past 10 years after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The stimulating effect of OIS on China’s economic growth has not yet been fully demonstrated. This indicates that the OIS, as a new momentum of economic growth, has not yet been brought into presently in China. Economic growth has a driving effect on the OIS. However, it is only when the economic development enters a relatively mature stage can this driving effect be gradually brought into play.