Approaches for Mega-Cities to Break Through Path Dependence and Realize Transformation and Innovative Development: A Comparative Study on Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Tianjin.

As China's economy has entered the development stage of a "new normal," the traditional path relying on investment scale expansion for economic growth can no longer sustain. Thus the key of the supply-side structural reform lies in breaking through the long-term path dependence and facilitating the transformation and innovation of socio-economic and urban development. This paper takes Shenzhen as the benchmark of the comparative study, and Guangzhou and Tianjin as the comparative object to analyze the contributions of the demand-side "troika" - investment, consumption, and export, to economic growth from 1986 to 2015. Then, it introduces multiple growth elements on the supply-side to analyze the significant contribution elements in urban economic growth and their contribution degrees. Meanwhile, in combination with the economic development background and the policy guidance since the reform and opening up, the paper analyzes the characteristics of the development paths and their trends of the three cities. In the end, based on the comparative study, it carries out a discussion on the development path for mega-cities and their urban planning strategies at the new era from three perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]