Land Misallocation and Carbon Emissions: Evidence from China

Abstract

Based on the land market transaction data and city-level carbon emission data of 282 prefecture-level cities from 2005 to 2018 in China Land Market Network, this paper discusses the effect of land resource misallocation on carbon emissions and its influencing mechanisms. The research finds that, the local government’s strategy of “seek development with the land” has made a large amount of urban construction land being allocated to the industrial field, leading to the price of industrial land to be underestimated and obvious land resource misallocation. The land resource misallocation has significantly increased the level of urban carbon emissions through mechanisms such as hindering the upgrading of industrial structure, restraining technological innovation and weakening the effect of economic agglomeration. Moreover, the results are still robust after replacing the core variable indicators, considering extreme values and controlling endogeneity. Additionally, further study finds that land resource misallocation not only evidently aggravates the city’s own release of carbon emissions, but also has a remarkable spatial spillover effect on adjacent cities. Meanwhile, except for small cities, the misallocation of land resources in Type-I large cities and above, Type-II large cities and Medium-sized cities noticeably exacerbates urban carbon emissions, and the effect increases with the upgrading of city size. Regionally, the land misallocation on carbon emissions has significantly increased the carbon emissions in the eastern and central regions but has no significant impact on the carbon emissions in the western region. Finally, the conclusion of this paper will have important practical significance for further promoting the standardization of China’s land market and realizing the green and high-quality development of the urban economy.