State infrastructure and neighborhood well-being in urbanizing China

Urbanization involves a process of state building. As manifest in its infrastructure, the state shapes its interactions with citizens. In this study, we link fine-grained geo-referenced points-of-interest (POI) data of government agencies with the 2018 Urbanization and Quality of Life Survey conducted in 40 localities experiencing rural-urban transition, and investigate how the presence of state infrastructure is associated with neighborhood well-being in China during a period of rapid urbanization. Our findings confirm that urbanization contributes to the expansion of local state: there is more evidence of state infrastructure per capita in newly urbanized areas than in potential sites of urbanization. Moreover, the association between state infrastructure and neighborhood well-being varies based on the type of government institution and the type of neighborhood. The presence of administrative infrastructure is positively associated with neighborhood satisfaction, which is likely due to residents’ easier access to public services. In contrast, there is a negative association between coercive infrastructure and neighborhood satisfaction, but less so for urban neighborhoods than rural villages. The research provides nationwide evidence that the process of urbanization increases the state reach as well as its influence on local governance, but the effects of this influence vary considerably.