Industrial Land Use Efficiency Research Articles

Can China’s Market-Oriented Reform Improve the Efficiency of Industrial Land Use? A Panel Data Empirical Analysis at Prefecture Level From 2007–2019

China is entering rapid industrialization and urbanization since 1990’s with the urban land use payment reform. Nevertheless, higher rate of industrial land in construction land driving by local government-led industrial double growth competition fuels China the global biggest manufacturing giant and second largest economy on one hand, waste water, liquid and green house gas emission from industrial development has become more and more serious on the other hand, which has aroused a great concern nationally and globally. So low industrial land use efficiency (ILUE) is a big challenge besieging China at present. Whether the market-oriented reform of industrial land supply (MRIL) launched by the Chinese government can optimize the allocation of industrial land resources and improve the ILUE is urgent to be addressed at present. Basing on panel data of 270 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2019, we first construct marketization rate of industrial land (MIL) and examine the temporal and spatial change in MIL in each prefecture-level city. Then the impact of MIL on industrial land use efficiency (ILUE) is illuminated by super-efficient slacks-based measure (SBM) model including desirable and undesirable outputs. The results show that: 1) The overall level of the ILUE in China’s 270 prefecture-level cities was relatively low, which increase and decrease with the years. 2) China’s MRIL plays a positive role in the ILUE, but the impact is low. 3) The effect of MRIL on ILUE varies regionally, namely higher economic development and higher the effect, and the vice versa. We suggest both the central and local governments should target policy reform regarding the land market development and regional economic development. The research will contribute to ongoing market oriented and economic reform both in China and the transitional economies worldwide.

Does improvement of industrial land use efficiency reduce PM2.5 pollution? Evidence from a spatiotemporal analysis of China

The improvement of industrial land use efficiency (ILUE) in China not only promotes economic development, but also brings about the air pollution problem with PM2.5 as the primary pollutant. However, little work has been done on the effect of ILUE on PM2.5 pollution. In this study, geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model is used to analyze the relationship between ILUE and PM2.5 pollution in 270 cities of China from 2015 to 2018. The results show that the improvement of ILUE is a potential factor of PM2.5 pollution change, and its effect on PM2.5 pollution has obvious spatial heterogeneity in intensity and direction. The ILUE in the eastern region is significantly higher than that in the central and western region of China. The cities with higher PM2.5 concentration are mainly concentrated in the north, while the cities in the southeast coast and southwest inland region have lower PM2.5 concentration. Based on the results of four years, most of the cities with negative correlation between the improvement of ILUE and PM2.5 pollution are concentrated in economically developed areas, while the cities with positive correlation are mainly distributed in economically underdeveloped areas. In addition, the impact of ILUE on PM2.5 pollution presents an inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Other control variables, namely per capita gross domestic product (PGDP), population density (PD), industrial soot (dust) emission (ISDE), industrial structure (IS), and precipitation (PRE), have significant impacts on PM2.5 pollution. These results are helpful for the correct understanding of environmental impact caused by the improvement of ILUE, and provide a theoretical reference for the government to formulate relevant land and industrial policies.

Spatial Threshold Effect of Industrial Land Use Efficiency on Industrial Carbon Emissions: A Case Study in China.

China’s industry is still in the middle of industrialization. Land use activities are crucial to the growth of carbon emissions. However, few scholars focus on the influence mechanism between industrial land use efficiency (ILUE) and industrial carbon emissions. In this paper, the threshold model and the spatial Durbin model are used to investigate the spatial threshold effect of industrial land use efficiency on industrial carbon emission from 2003 to 2018. The results show that ILUE of China’s provinces basically shows an improvement trend, with little difference in spatial distribution, showing a pattern of high in the eastern region and low in the western region. When economic development level (A) and technical level (T) are taken as the threshold variable, ILUE has a single threshold effect on industrial carbon emissions in the eastern region. In the central region, with a as the threshold variable, ILUE shows a double threshold effect on industrial carbon emission. Under the 0–1 geographical proximity weight matrix, the indirect spillover effect of ILUE on reducing regional carbon emissions is significant, and the indirect effect is even greater than that on regional carbon emissions. The spatial spillover effect is not significant in the eastern region. These findings have important practical significance for promoting regional industrial transformation and upgrading, optimizing land space and realizing high-quality economic development.

Can China’s Resource-Saving and Environmentally Friendly Society Really Improve the Efficiency of Industrial Land Use?

The Chinese government is committed to its goal of building a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society (RES). The hope is that establishing an RES will accelerate social and economic development, improve resource utilization, and transform industrialization. This paper focuses on the Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan urban agglomeration (CZTUA) in Hunan Province, which is a pilot for the RES, as an example. A slack-based measure model based on data envelopment analysis was used to evaluate industrial land use efficiency (ILUE), which includes undesirable outputs. We collected panel data from 2003 to 2018 and used the difference-in-differences method to investigate whether the ILUE in the CZTUA has improved since the implementation of the RES in 2007. The results showed that: (1) the ILUE in the CZTUA increased from 0.25 in 2003 to 0.48 in 2018; (2) from 2007 to 2018, the establishment of the RES increased the ILUE in the CZTUA by 24.6%; (3) gross domestic product and the secondary industry structure ratio had key roles in improving the ILUE in the CZTUA; (4) there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development and the ILUE in the CZTUA; (5) since the establishment of the RES, the pollution emission index of the CZTUA has clearly decreased each year. These findings not only provide a reference for the Chinese government for following up the formation of the RES and its promotion in other regions of China, but may also contribute to sustainable economic development in other transitional countries in the world.

Spatial-temporal characteristics of industrial land use efficiency in provincial China based on a stochastic frontier production function approach

Improving industrial land use efficiency is of great significance for sustainable industrial development. This paper measures the industrial land use efficiency (ILUE) in China, and explores its spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors by using a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) method. A translog SFA model that characterizes the relationship between industrial land productivity and land input level is established to estimate the efficiency. The estimation results of the SFA model and related tests both show that the stochastic frontier method for ILUE measurement is suitable, and the contribution rate of technical inefficiency term to the mixed error reaches 66.9%. ILUE levels in China show an increasing trend from 2004 to 2017. The average efficiency in the east is the highest. ILUE in the west gradually surpassed that in the northeast in recent years. Reduction of the inter-group difference greatly contributed to the decrease in overall difference, but it is still the main source of overall difference. Results of the inefficiency function show that enterprise ownership structure produces negative impact on ILUE. The specialization of high-tech manufacturing industry, urbanization level and transportation condition have positive influence on ILUE, while the specialization of the chemical and rubber industry and the local financial pressure exert negative effects. Based on these, some policy recommendations for ILUE improvement are further proposed.

Factors affecting industrial land use efficiency in China: analysis from government and land market

China’s economy has a typical characteristic that the government has a strong control of enormous productive resources, such as the land resources. Industrial land use is greatly influenced by institutional factors that refer to the market means and government control. But little empirical researches have focused on the performances of government incentives and land market in industrial land use efficiency (ILUE). Based on the geographically and temporally weighted regression model, this study reveals the spatial and temporal role of government incentives and land market on ILUE in China from 2007 to 2015. The results show that the ILUE has spatial and temporal differences in different cities, showing a significant increasing trend from 2007 to 2015. The land transfer fund, land added tax, and official promotion incentive have a negative impact on the ILUE of most cities in 2015. There are significant temporal and spatial variations in the effect of land marketization, land price, the proportion of stock land and the proportion of unused land on ILUE between cities. Finally, this paper provides some policy implications according to the results obtained.

Spatial-temporal characteristics of industrial land green efficiency in China: Evidence from prefecture-level cities

Abstract In the context of the construction of an ecologically sustainable civilization and green development, the continuous improvement in industrial land green use has played an important role in China. Only a few studies have evaluated industrial land-use efficiency from the perspective of ecological economy. Considering energy consumption and undesirable outputs simultaneously, this study evaluated the industrial land green efficiency (ILGE) of 198 cities in China from 2007 to 2015 using the Slacks-based Measure (SBM)-Undesirable model, and spatial convergence methods were used to analyze the trend of ILGE. The study found clear regional differences in ILGE. The average ILGE in the eastern region was much higher than that in the central and western regions. From a temporal perspective, the average ILGE in all cities has gradually decreased since 2007 and fell to its lowest value in 2013. However, the ILGE showed a continuous upward trend in the final two years. Most cities with high ILGE values appeared to be concentrated in the eastern region. Fifteen cities with scores of 1.00 accounted for 8.6% of the total, indicating that they are the most efficient in the sample over all the years studied. Heilongjiang Province had the lowest ILGE, with 75% of the cities located in the lowest 30 places of the ILGE ranking. The national, eastern, and central regions showed an unstable short-term characteristic of σ-convergence since 2013. Absolute and conditional β-convergence existed in all regions, indicating that cities with poorer efficiency have a faster ILGE growth rate than leading cities.

Exploring the industrial land use efficiency of China's resource-based cities

Resource-based cities (RBCs) are cities that have emerged from the utilization of natural resources and are dominated by resource-based industries. Industry is the leading economic activity of resource-based cities. However, industrial land in resource-based cities is faced with the challenges of inefficient use, to which little attention has been paid. Because RBCs are the location of leading economic activity, improving industrial land use efficiency is pivotal in these cities. This study used sub-vector Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) to calculate the industrial land use efficiency (ILUE) of China's 109 resource-based cities from 2006 to 2015. The empirical results proved that there was redundancy of industrial land in most of China's RBCs, but the overall degree of redundancy is decreasing. There were obvious differences in ILUE among different regions, different resource types and different development stages. Factors influencing ILUE were analyzed using the Tobit model. Regional economic development, industrial development and science and technology development had significant positive effects on ILUE, while the labor structure and the ownership structure of enterprises have significant negative effects. The conclusions that are drawn from the results support recommendations to improve ILUE for RBCs. The ILUE should be taken as the guidance for the layout of industrial land use in a RBC and should be incorporated into new industry spatial development strategy planning.

Environment-biased technological progress and industrial land-use efficiency in China’s new normal

The slow growth of the Chinese economy has led to a reduced number of environmental regulations. This study aims to establish whether China’s “new normal” economy can stimulate environment-biased technological progress to improve industrial land-use efficiency. First, we set up a two-sector theoretical model where in the new normal is treated as an exogenous variable to analyze the combined effects of technological progress, industrial land-use efficiency, and environmental regulations. Then, we establish a multi-index and multi-indicator constitutive equation, in which environment-biased technological progress is taken as an intermediate variable. The results show that the effects of weak environmental regulations on environment-biased technological progress are not significant and that China’s new normal economy can stimulate the progress of clean technology, thereby improving industrial land-use efficiency. Finally, foreign direct investment restricts the improvement of industrial land-use efficiency.

Industrial land-use efficiency and planning in Shunyi, Beijing

With significant socioeconomic development and a growing population, promoting land-use efficiency is, and will remain, the crucial land-use planning issue in China. This study analyzed the characteristics of land-use intensity and programmed industrial land-use planning. The data used in this study were collected from interviews with enterprises, the land registry, administrative committees of the development zones, the first distribution record of the state land-use rights certificates, and Shunyi's economic records. The evaluation of land-use efficiency involved comparing sectors, locations inside and outside development zones, land obtained by transaction or otherwise, and changes over time. Unlike standard dominant industry selections, this study considered the role of intensive land-use crucial to industrial development planning. This land-use efficiency analysis and industrial development planning enabled industrial land-use planning to be accomplished in three important and difficult respects: quantity, arrangement, and scheduling.