YIMBYism as Industrial Policy

Shenzhen is China’s leading high-tech hub. The once obscure fishing village became a pillar of the global economy thanks to its proximity to Hong Kong and to being designated a Special Economic Zone in the earliest days of Deng’s reforms, plus some other smart choices and good luck. Part and parcel of that economic transformation is that the city has physically transformed from looking like a poor fishing village to looking like a major 21st-century city. Photos of Shenzhen via PMA Magazine The US can’t point to any specific economic transformation as dramatic as Shenzhen’s for the simple reason that absolutely nowhere in the United States of America was as poor in 1982 as Shenzhen was. But we absolutely do have places that have become home to world-leading technology companies. And it’s not just that those places haven’t transformed to the extent Shenzhen has (that’s a base effect); it’s that Seattle and San Francisco and nearby Silicon Valley don’t look nearly as advanced and high- ... Read full article.