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This thesis seeks to illuminate and compare two different ‘models’ of economic development
trailed by two different prefecture-level cities in China: Nanjing and Suzhou. Although both
are considered affluent cities, and located in the same broad economic area, the Yangtze river
delta, and in the same sub-provincial region, Southern Jiangsu, the cities in case present
markedly distinct patterns of local institutional configurations and of economic growth
outcomes.
While Suzhou features an industrial base more heavily concentrated on information and
communication technologies, traditionally dominated by foreign-invested enterprises, geared
towards external markets and reliant on lower wages, Nanjing, by contrast, has an industrial
base dominated by state-owned enterprises, is more sectorially diversified, and is less reliant
on exports and cheap labour. In order to make sense of these structural characteristics of both
cities, the concept of institutional complementarities is employed, and it is argued that each
city benefits from the coherence of institutional interconnections present at the city-level.
After analysing the singular structural-institutional characteristics of each city, the thesis
focuses on their respective economic performances. It is observed that in the years prior to the
2008 global financial crisis Suzhou clearly outperformed Nanjing, but after 2009 the scenario
is reversed, with Nanjing taking the lead. Hence, one cannot assert which local ‘model’ is
unambiguously superior to the other in terms of growth outcomes.
The research aims to demonstrate how different local institutional-structural characteristics
render distinct growth performances, and under which macroeconomic conditions one
particular local ‘model’ outperform the other, elucidating, thus, the ability of city-specific
institutional complementarities to spur regional growth in different periods of time. Following
demand-led theories on economic growth, it will be argued that it is the match between the
national-level aggregate demand composition and the local-level structural-institutional
characteristics which will render localities relatively faster (or slower) growth rates.
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