The coupled relationships between land development and land ownership at China’s urban fringe: A structural equation modeling approach

Abstract

The rate of land urbanization has grown rapidly in recent decades in China, and a growing body of literature has investigated the driving forces behind it. The dual nature of China’s land ownership system, in which top-down and bottom-up land development form two separate tracks, is frequently cited in these studies. While top-down land development is dominant, bottom-up land development, which has traditionally been overlooked in academic studies, may be equally pivotal for land development in China. This study extends traditional urban economic analyses and demonstrates how land ownership and land development are interconnected in China. This study applies structural equation modeling to data taken from Shenzhen, a city where the two tracks of land development coexist, to estimate the reciprocal relationships between land ownership and land development. The results show that the influence of land ownership on land development is significant and that collective ownership has a positive influence on land development; likewise, land development also influences ownership: land development tends to facilitate the conversion of land from collective to state ownership. The study recommends more tailored policies and strategies targeted toward improving management of collective-owned lands while simultaneously advancing urban redevelopment.