Institutional Diversity in the Redevelopment of Urban Villages in China

Redevelopment of Chinese urban villages may or may not happen and may or may not take a long time. To explain the variation, I identify two types of redevelopment approaches: autonomous and collaborative. In autonomous approaches, villagers operate independently and rely on norms and extralegal institutions. In collaborative approaches, villagers work with local developers and governments. Fieldwork in six Chinese villages shows that small villages with homogenous housing stocks and strong institutional entrepreneurship tend to pursue autonomous approaches, while larger villages with heterogeneous housing stocks tend to pursue collaborative approaches. Moreover, trust within villages and in government can facilitate redevelopment