The value-capture paradox of metro accessibility and gated communities in China.
This paper highlights a critical challenge in China: although metro projects are justified by their potential to improve accessibility—a core public good—these benefits are often captured by private developers through the construction of gated communities around metro stations. We argue that local g...
| Publicado en: | Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) Vol. 63; no. 11; pp. 2539 - 2557 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Sage Publications, Ltd.
Aug2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195546167&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195546167 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00420980 54XY jtl: Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) issn: 00420980 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Aug2026 vid: 63 iid: 11 pid: 2171 pub: Sage Publications, Ltd. artinfo: ui: 195546167 10.1177/00420980261420975 ppf: 2539 ppct: 18 formats: tig: atl: The value-capture paradox of metro accessibility and gated communities in China. aug: au: Sun, Guibo Lee, Ji Eun He, Dongsheng Webster, Chris affil: The University of Manchester, UK The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China University of Leeds, UK su: China Nanchang (China) Private communities Urban planning Transit-oriented development Economic infrastructure investing Local transit access Real estate investment sug: subj: Private communities Urban planning China Nanchang (China) Land Subdivision Administration of Urban Planning and Community and Rural Development Other Financial Vehicles Transit-oriented development Economic infrastructure investing Local transit access Real estate investment keyword: gated community infrastructure planning land finance transit-oriented development 以公共交通为导向的开发 土地财政 基础设施规划 封闭式社区 gated community infrastructure planning land finance transit-oriented development 以公共交通为导向的开发 土地财政 基础设施规划 封闭式社区 ab: This paper highlights a critical challenge in China: although metro projects are justified by their potential to improve accessibility—a core public good—these benefits are often captured by private developers through the construction of gated communities around metro stations. We argue that local government's reliance on land finance to cover the high costs of the infrastructure has distorted planning priorities, relegating the creation of permeable, well-integrated station areas—a core principle of transit-oriented development—to secondary importance or irrelevance. Using a natural experiment that leverages national approval timing and local planning knowledge, we identify the causal effect of metro expansion on gated community development in Nanchang, a medium-sized Chinese city that experienced rapid growth in both metro networks and gated blocks over the past decade. Difference-in-differences estimates with multiple time periods show that, relative to control areas, each new metro station induces an average of 3.5 additional gated communities, with cumulative area increasing by 0.15–0.23 km depending on the treatment year. These metro-induced effects remained statistically significant for up to six years after construction began. Our findings suggest that land-based metro financing may constrain the long-term public benefits of costly infrastructure investments, reflecting an enduring planning failure. We characterise this outcome as a "value-capture paradox," in which the public good of accessibility used to justify metro construction is displaced by short-term financing imperatives. The study offers broader insights for international debates on land finance and infrastructure-led growth in developing contexts. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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