Experimental Coastal Land Reclamation: Qianhai as a Case Interpreted

ABSTRACT

Informed by a Coasian transaction cost paradigm enriched by the concept of Schumpeterian innovations, this paper discusses the advantages of using experimental coastal reclamation of the sea to build new cities with a policy for fostering innovations. A new development area at the margin of Shenzhen in China, Qianhai, is used to demonstrate how urban expansion by urban sprawling in a megacity can be avoided by reclamation of marginal land as analytically less costly than along intra-marginal land and more suitable for experimentation for the type of megacity concept that Qianhai aims to achieve.

KEYWORDS:

• Schumpeterian experimentation
• transaction cost
• social cost
• reclamation
• Qianhai

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. https://www.bayarea.gov.hk/en/home/index.html. Accessed 24 November 2019.

2. http://news.ycwb.com/2013-08/06/content_4792151.htm.

3. The Law originated from a 1984 Sino-British Declaration on the handover of the-then British Colony to China. Hong Kong at this point still operates in terms of social and legal system as well as money supply mechanism very differently from the rest of China.

4. A document from Urban Planning, Land and Resource Commission of Shenzhen Municipality (深圳市规划与国土资源委员会).