New-type Urbanization Research Articles

How does new-type urbanization affect total carbon emissions, per capita carbon emissions, and carbon emission intensity? An empirical analysis of the Yangtze River economic belt, China

The coordination of the relationship between new-type urbanization (NTU) and carbon emission reduction has become China's primary strategic goal. However, previous studies on this topic mainly examined the unidirectional impact of NTU on carbon emissions, while disregarding their potential relationship. This study establishes an evaluation system for measuring NTU and explores the bidirectional impact between NTU and total carbon emissions (TCE), per capita carbon emissions (PCE), and carbon emission intensity (CEI). The Yangtze River Economic Belt of China is selected as the study area, and the period from 2005 to 2019 is studied. The results show that: (1) The NTU levels in the upstream, midstream, and downstream regions of the Yangtze River increase from 0.148, 0.208, and 0.365 in 2005 to 0.465, 0.503, and 0.675 in 2019, suggesting that NTU levels tend to be balanced in these three reaches. (2) A positive bidirectional impact is found between NTU and TCE, as well as PCE in midstream and upstream regions, whereas in downstream regions, only a positive unidirectional effect of NTU on TCE and PCE is found. (3) Specifically, TCE plays the most significant role in promoting NTU in upstream regions, while NTU exerts the greatest pulling force on TCE and PCE in midstream regions. (4) Unlike the positive impact between NTU and TCE or PCE, there is a significant two-way inhibitory effect between NTU and CEI. (5) A three-step carbon emission reduction law is found in the process of NTU, where NTU towards low carbon development will experience NTU inhibits CEI, PCE, and TCE in sequential order. These findings provide an important reference for promoting a harmonious relationship between NTU and carbon emission reduction, helping governments formulate reasonable measures to achieve high-quality urban development and carbon emission reduction goals.

Return migration and in-situ urbanization of 79 migrant sending counties in China: Characteristic and driving factors

As the country with the largest number of migrants, China has shown a trend of return migration in recent years. However, the characteristics and mechanism of emerging in-situ urbanization of migrants have not been fully revealed. We construct an analytical framework considering China's situation based on the push-pull theory in the urban-rural dichotomy. Using cell phone data from 79 migrant-sending counties, we calculate the in-situ urbanization rate and apply a simple regression model to analyze its driving factors. The findings show that rural income and fiscal investments are the main pull factors, while economic slowdown in cities acts as push factors.In-situ urbanization is the dual effect of improving living standards and reducing urban employment opportunities. To support China's efforts in New-type Urbanization, improving living standards and expanding off-farm employment opportunities of migrant-sending counties are suggested.

New-Type Urbanization on pollution and carbon reduction impact mechanism and co-benefits analysis.

How to simultaneously reduce environmental pollution and CO2 emissions is a challenging issue for various countries, particularly in China. Unlike traditional urbanization process that inevitably deteriorates environment, China initiated a New-Type Urbanization (NTU) strategy in 2014 following four principles: people-centeredness, optimal layout, ecological civilization, and cultural inheritance. Previous studies conduct research on NTU's influencing pollution and carbon reduction (PCR), respectively, while ignoring synergistic governance. The research objectives of this study are to investigate the potential mechanisms of NTU's influencing PCR and co-benefits for PCR. By leveraging 30 provincial-level data from China spanning 2005 to 2019, we comprehensively construct an index and assess NTU from six domains: population, economic, environmental, spatial, equitable, and social urbanizations and combine a coupling coordination model with a 2-way fixed effects model for empirical analysis. Our findings demonstrate that (1) NTU tends to significantly suppress pollution and carbon emissions, and this finding is reliable after several robustness tests and solving endogeneity with relief degree of land surface as an instrumental variable (IV). (2) The reducing effects seem to be achieved by promoting talent agglomeration, facilitating economic agglomeration and strengthening environmental regulations. (3) NTU tends to have both current and time-lag effects on pollution and carbon reduction, and their co-benefits are mainly influenced by the time-lag effect. Accordingly, policy recommendations are recommended: governments need to plan urbanization rationally, including strengthening public infrastructure and social welfare, pursuing the strategy of introducing talents, planning land and resource use rationally and efficiently, and strengthening environmental regulations. In addition, a mechanism should be developed to reduce pollution and carbon in an integrated manner for the long term. Our study broadens the horizons for international scholars engaged in sustainable urbanization research, enriching the array of research methodologies.

An approach to urban system spatial planning in Chengdu Chongqing economic circle using geospatial big data

Evidence suggests city grouping is an important way to implement urbanization in China. However, the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle (CCEC) is a typical dual-core structure, and the development level of each city is different. If we do not focus on the key directions for urban development, it will not be conducive to the new-type urbanization process. Therefore, we use spatial analysis techniques and geographic big data sets to construct an approach for urban system layout optimization from a global perspective. It mainly includes urban extended trend analysis based on night light, multi-modal traffic network analysis, and spatial economic density analysis using Open Street Map (OSM) and Point of Interest (POI) data. The research results show the following interesting findings. Firstly, the historical relationship of cities has a significant impact on city grouping, and efficient transportation connections and prosperous enterprise distribution are key conditions for urban grouping during the acceleration period of urbanization. Secondly, the development of urban grouping should break through administrative restrictions and achieve a moderate separation of administrative divisions and economic divisions. It is beneficial to the rapid growth of the city group and the improvement of the internal structure. Thirdly, the urban group of Southern Sichuan and Western Chongqing (SSWC) is the region with the most potential for growth in CCEC. The urban expansion index (UEI) of the Yibin-Luzhou area is 2.16, and the spatial economic density has increased by 130/km2 in the past decade. Providing flexible development authority and focus on the construction of the Yibin-Luzhou Urban Belt along the Yangtze River is an important way to integrate southern Sichuan. Moreover, we found the UEI has a good universality and it can be used for studying urban expansion trends and city relationships in rapidly developing regions, especially in metropolitan areas or urban agglomeration.

Examining coordination and equilibrium: an analysis of supply index and spatial evolution characteristics for older adult services in Zhejiang Province.

This study aims to analyze the spatial distribution and dynamic evolution of older adult service supply in Zhejiang Province from 2010 to 2019. Additionally, this research seeks to propose an optimized resource allocation strategy for older adult care services, promoting regional fairness and coordinated development. To evaluate the older adult service supply capacity, this research first constructed an evaluation index system based on the Chinese modernization development pattern. Then, an empirical analysis was carried out using a combination of the entropy-TOPSIS method, kernel density estimation, Markov chain analysis, Dagum Gini coefficient, and panel regression model. The results show an overall upward trend in the supply and service capacity of older adult care in the whole province. However, the spatial distribution of older adult service supply capacity in Zhejiang Province still exhibits a gradient effect, even in the most recent year of 2019. Furthermore, the supply capacity of older adult services shifted to a higher level in the whole province, and regions with high supply capacity had a positive spillover effect on adjacent regions. The overall difference in the older adult service supply capacity of the province showed a decreasing trend. The level of economic development, urbanization rate, transportation capacity, the level of opening up, and the proportion of employees in the tertiary industry had a significant impact on the supply capacity and spatial difference of older adult services. From the findings, this study puts forth countermeasures and suggestions to optimize the spatial distribution of older adult care services. This includes giving full play to the regional spatial linkage effect, promoting new-type urbanization construction, upgrading the transportation network, and expanding the opening up of the industrial structure. By implementing these measures, a more equitable and coordinated older adult services system can be developed in Zhejiang Province.

Exploring the coupling coordination of urban ecological resilience and new-type urbanization: The case of China’s Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle

Reviewing the coupling coordination between urban ecological resilience (UER) and new-type urbanization (NU) has gradually become a necessary condition for understanding the structure and service patterns of urban ecological systems. Discussion on the temporal and spatial coordination evolution in UER and NU in urban agglomerations with different characteristics is beneficial for understanding the operational mechanisms of urban ecosystems. This work constructs a novel evaluation framework for the coupling coordination process between UER and NU, and scientifically measures the performance of each indicator using the entropy method and CRITIC method. By using the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, this paper explores the spatio-temporal effects of the relationship between UER and NU, which has narrowed the cognitive gap. Using the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle in China as an example, the validity and practicality of the framework are verified. The results show that the CCD between UER and NU generally shows a rapid growth trend with time and tends to be balanced; and the development patterns of CCD in urban agglomerations show significant spatial differences influenced by factors such as location advantage, natural resources, and human social activities. These results and findings can provide decision-making information reference for urban ecological system services, urban livability, and government planning.

China's cities go carbon neutral: How can new-type urbanization policies improve urban carbon performance?

Although the growth of urbanization based on economic construction has produced an economic miracle, it has also brought up significant obstacles to the sustainable growth of the economy and society. China has established a new-type urbanization policy (NTUP) since 2014 to address the carbon emission issues brought on by traditional development. This paper presents the first theoretical analysis of the impact and mechanisms of the NTUP on carbon emission performance (CEP). This study employs the difference-in-differences (DID) approach to investigate the impact, spatial spillover effects, and mechanisms of the NTUP on CEP by adopting a panel dataset from 2003 to 2020 for China's 283 cities. The empirical findings indicate that (1) new-type urbanized cities' carbon emissions are lowered by 1.37 % compared with nonpilot cities, and their carbon emission efficiency is raised by 31.56 %. After several robustness and hypothesis tests, this finding is still true. (2) The NTUP has a spatial spillover effect on CEP, significantly improving CEP for cities in the [0,1000] km range. (3) The key mechanisms by which the NTUP influences CEP are green technology innovation, energy structure, industrial structure, and resource allocation. (4) The NTUP has a stronger effect on CEP in medium-sized cities, cities with medium economic development, and resource-based cities. Finally, a response is briefly proposed.

Characteristics of the Evolution of China’s Regional Economic Differences Based on the Perspective of Urban Agglomerations

Urban agglomerations are becoming an important spatial carrier for China’s industrialisation and new-type urbanisation, and an important engine to drive the national economic development, and regional economic differences based on urban agglomerations have also become a new feature of China’s regional differences in the new period. Based on the urban agglomeration perspective, we quantitatively measure China’s regional economic differences from 2001 to 2020 through the two-stage nested decomposition method of the Theil Index, and analyse the evolutionary characteristics of the economic differences within the 19 urban agglomerations in the country by decomposing them into four major regions: East, Central, West and Northeast, and the differences between the urban agglomerations within the regions and the economic differences within the urban agglomerations. The study found that: (1) Overall the overall differences of the region with urban agglomerations as the core were gradually shrinking. In terms of the trend of changes in the differences at all levels, the economic differences between regions and within urban agglomerations were significantly reduced, and the changes in the economic differences between urban agglomerations were not obvious. In terms of contribution rate, the contribution rate of intra-urban agglomeration differences had always remained at a high level, reaching about half of the overall economic differences in the country, and was the primary contributing factor to the overall economic differences. (2) In terms of absolute differences, the economic differences among urban agglomerations in the four regions showed a clear pattern of “East > West > Central ≈ Northeast”. (3) The intra-cluster economic differences of each urban agglomeration in 20 years were at different levels and showed a differentiated trend of evolution, and the areas with relatively more prominent intra-cluster economic differences were the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration in the east, and the Lan-xi urban agglomeration and the North Slope of Tianshan Mountain urban agglomeration in the northwestern region. The economic differences of urban agglomerations are the result of a variety of factors, and the reasons for the formation of regional economic differences are analysed from the factors of economic location, national regional development policies, human resource factors and high-speed traffic differences within the urban agglomerations.

The Spatial Pattern Evolution of Rural Settlements and Multi-Scenario Simulations since the Initiation of the Reform and Opening up Policy in China

Since the inception of China’s reform and opening-up policy, the rapidly advancing process of urbanization and the primacy accorded to urban development policies have imparted increasingly profound ramifications on rural domains. Nonetheless, antecedent research has predominantly fixated on urban sprawl, overlooking the spatial metamorphosis of rural settlements and the prospective developmental trajectories within the policy paradigm. Consequently, this inquiry endeavors to scrutinize the evolution of the spatial configuration of rural settlements in She County from the advent of reform and opening-up (1980–2020) utilizing remote sensing data. In tandem, through scenario delineation and the utilization of the CLUE-S model, it aspires to prognosticate the evolving trends in the spatial arrangements of rural settlements in She County by 2035. The empirical findings divulge that (1) The temporal progression of rural settlement spatial configurations in She County over the preceding four decades can be delineated into two discernible phases. From 1980 to 2000, alterations in the number, extent, and spatial morphological attributes of rural settlements remained circumscribed. While the count of rural settlements registered a diminution (by 3), the aggregate extent experienced a marginal augmentation (by 8.45%), concomitant with a gradual gravitation towards regular boundaries, manifesting a stochastic distribution throughout the investigation expanse. Conversely, from 2000 to 2020, the quantity and extent of rural settlements in She County underwent a precipitous augmentation (92 and 36.37%, respectively), characterized by irregular peripheries. (2) The CLUE-S model achieved an overall precision of 0.929, underscoring its applicability in emulating fluctuations in rural settlements. (3) Within the new-type urbanization scenario, the cumulative expanse of rural settlements witnessed a decline of 35.36% compared to the natural development scenario, marked by substantial conversions into grassland and urban land usage. Furthermore, orchestrated planning and directive measures have propelled the consolidation of rural settlements in She County, engendering a more equitable and standardized layout. Under the aegis of the ecological conservation scenario, the total rural settlement area recorded a 0.38% reduction vis-à-vis the natural development scenario, primarily entailing competitive coexistence with arable land, grassland, and urban land usage in spatial terms.

Spatial-temporal evolution pattern of multidimensional urban shrinkage in China and its impact on urban form

The scientific recognition of urban shrinkage patterns and their impacts is crucial for urban economic development and building harmonious relationships between people and the environment. This study, through the construction of a multidimensional evaluation system for urban shrinkage, provides a systematic analysis of the spatial patterns and evolution of urban shrinkage in China from 2000 to 2020, and examines the effects of urban shrinkage on the evolution of urban form. The findings suggest that: (i) The trend of urban shrinkage in China is worsening, with shrinking cities primarily located in the peripheral areas of growth poles and the northeast region, often exhibiting a simultaneous shrinkage in population, economy, and society; (ii) Urban shrinkage, especially population and economic shrinkage, has a growing influence on urban form, leading to a reduction in the speed and scale of urban land expansion and a decrease in the number of urban patches; (iii) There is a spatial mismatch between the level of urban shrinkage and urban form indicators, particularly in some cities where a paradox of population loss, economic decline, and urban land expansion coexist. This contradiction severely violates the laws of urban development and poses a threat to the construction of new-type urbanization.

Can new-type urbanization realize low-carbon development? A spatiotemporal heterogeneous analysis in 288 cities and 18 urban agglomerations in China

Cities and urban agglomerations are carriers of greenhouse gas emissions and show significant heterogeneity. China has entered a transitional period of new-type urbanization, which emphasizes high-quality and coordinated regional development. However, evidence of the spatiotemporal heterogenous effects of new-type urbanization on carbon emissions in cities, and especially in urban agglomerations are still lacking. This study estimated the new-type urbanization level and investigated its spatiotemporal heterogenous impacts on carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂) in 288 Chinese cities and 18 urban agglomerations. The results show that for each 1% increase in new-type urbanization level, the median estimation of CO₂ emissions per capita can decrease by 171.0% (46.8%,338.4%) at city-level. The inverted “U-shaped” relationships between new-type urbanization and CO₂ emissions per capita were observed in more than 60% of the cities. The average impacts of new-type urbanization and its square term of the cities which are located in urban agglomerations are estimated to be approximately 0.8 and 1.7 times of cities that are not, which indicates that cities in urban agglomerations are peaking their CO₂ emissions per capita with a higher enhancement of new-type urbanization. The results add new insights for formulating dynamic phase-to-phase carbon reduction policies and urban planning in cities and urban agglomerations.

A Causal Relationship between the New-Type Urbanization and Energy Consumption in China: A Panel VAR Approach

The accelerated urbanization process has been considered to be the root cause of increasingly severe energy consumption growth in China. However, energy is still an essential factor for the urbanization process, so arbitrarily mitigating energy use currently will unquestionably slow down the urbanization process. The principal contribution of this paper is to comprehensively analyze the dynamic interaction mechanism between the new-type urbanization and energy consumption, and further put forward a new idea of comparing the benefit of an increase in the level of new-type urbanization resulting from energy consumption and the negative externality of environmental damage related with energy consumption. This paper conducts an empirical study on the causal relationship between new-type urbanization and energy consumption using Chinese provincial administrative units from 1999 to 2020. And we find that new-type urbanization leads to energy consumption negatively and energy consumption leads to new-type urbanization positively for provinces in the eastern region. There is only a one-way effect of energy consumption on new-type urbanization for provinces in the central and northeastern regions, and there is negative feedback causality for provinces in the western region. Additionally, the benefit of an increase in the level of new-type urbanization resulting from energy consumption is larger than the negative externality of environmental damage related to energy consumption for provinces in the eastern, central, and northeastern regions, yet it is totally opposite for provinces in the western region. Finally, we propose some fruitful policy recommendations to construct new-type urbanization under the background of clear reduction targets for energy consumption in China.

Coupling coordination analysis and spatiotemporal heterogeneity between ecosystem services and new-type urbanization: A case study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

As a strategy for building a beautiful China, new-type urbanization (NTU) has an impact on the regional ecological security pattern. Clarifying the coupling coordination relationship between NTU and ecosystem services (ESs) can help ecological protection and high-quality coordinated development. The methods of this paper are as follows. Firstly, the integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model is used to calculate ESs, and then evaluate the level of NTU from multiple dimensions. On this basis, the coupling coordination degree model and the relative development model are used to analyze the coupling relationship between ESs and NTU. The results indicate that the ESs in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) decreased, from 2000 to 2020. The level of NTU continues to improve, but the spatial imbalance is more prominent. ESs and NTU are significantly negatively correlated, with population, economic, land, and infrastructural urbanization having a more detrimental effect on ESs overall. In general, the coupling coordination relationship between Es and NTU changes from intermediate coordination to primary coordination, and the spatial manifestation was “high in the east and low in the west” and the dependence was strong. Most areas show lagging ES disorders. To achieve an orderly breakthrough in the steady-state phase while adhering to the law of coupled coercive development, as well as to serve as a guide for making decisions to create a YREB model with clear skies, lush vegetation, stunning mountains, and harmony between people and the land.

Research on the Coordinated Development of Technological Innovation,Talent Agglomeration, and New Urbanization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

In the context of high-quality development, the development paradigm of integrating scientific and technological innovation, talent agglomeration, and new-type urbanization has become a key issue in regional development. Taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt as an example, this paper analyzes the interaction mechanism of the three systems and constructs an evaluation index system from the perspective of regional high-quality development. This paper combined entropy weight TOPSIS, coupling coordination degree model, and Gini coefficient to explore the spatial and temporal characteristics and regional differences of system coupling coordination. The evolution trend of the coupling coordination type is predicted by the Markov chain model. The research shows that: (1) The development index of the three major systems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is on the rise, and the coupling coordination degree is in the running-in stage as a whole. The resistance restricting the coupling coordination degree is mainly the lag of scientific and technological innovation in the upstream, and the lag of talent gathering in the middle and downstream. ( 2) The coupling coordination degree of the three systems has obvious spatial agglomeration characteristics, showing a high level in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and a low level in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. (3) The gap of the coupling coordination degree of the three systems in the whole Yangtze River Economic Belt is gradually narrowing, and the large development gap among different regions is still the main cause of the Gini coefficient of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. (4) There is a location difference in the probability of coupling coordination level transfer, and the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River will still be in the antagonistic or running-in stage in the next stage, while the lower reaches of the Yangtze River will be in the coordination stage. The research conclusions provide scientific references for the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Exploring the temporal and spatial effects of city size on regional economic integration: Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

The continuous expansion of cities has led to prominent threats of urban housing shortage, inefficient land use, and environmental degradation. Determining an appropriate city size to promote REI is a fundamental problem in China’s new-type urbanization period. This study investigated the impact of city size on REI from the spatio-temporal perspective, and performed an empirical investigation of such effects through spatial models, using panel data for 2004–2019 for 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). The results demonstrate that city size has an inverted U-shaped effect on REI, and the effects vary across urban agglomerations in the YREB. Moreover, we calculated their growth potential from the REI perspective based on 2019 data. This study examined 108 cities and found that 30 of them had exceeded their optimal size for efficiency during the REI process, highlighting the need for spatial territorial governance, management, and planning. Of the remaining cities, 68 were near their REI efficiency-maximizing size, with no more than 20% growth potential. Only 6 cities had the potential to expand between 20% and 50%, while 4 cities had the capacity to grow by more than 50%. Therefore, governments must develop tailored land use and urban management policies for each city to enhance their REI.

Promoting or inhibiting? New-type urbanization and urban carbon emissions efficiency in China

Urban carbon emissions lead to increases in global carbon emissions; consequently, meeting targets for low carbon emissions is a difficult problem in the context of urbanization. Improving urban carbon emissions efficiency (UCEE) in the new-type urbanization (NTU) process is key to reducing urban carbon and enhancing sustainable urban development. However, the potential of NTU in facilitating improved UCEE remains unclear. Thus, we investigated the effect and transmission mechanisms of NTU on UCEE in China. A set of spatial econometric models was used, with panel data from 283 cities across China from 2006 to 2019. The results showed that NTU significantly promoted the improvement of UCEE, and UCEE improved strongly during the later stage of NTU construction. In China's central and western cities, large cities, and non-natural resource–based cities, the promotion effect of NTU on UCEE was more significant. Overall, the economic agglomeration effect had the most significant influence, followed by the government leading effect and resource allocation effect. Moreover, the NTU pilot policies of civilized city, low-carbon city, innovative city, smart city, and green finance city significantly promoted the improvement of UCEE. These findings provide theoretical and empirical evidence for the effective achievement of the “dual carbon” goal with respect to NTU in China.

New-type urbanization efficiency measurement in Shanghai under the background of industry city integration.

With the development of urbanization, the problem of the disintegrated between industry and city became more prominent, exploring the reasons. The efficiency of new-type industry has been the crucial factor in city-industry integration. This paper constructs the measurement index system of new-type urbanization via DEA-BCC methodology, starting from the quality of urbanization to analyze the efficiency of urbanization. This paper chooses the total energy consumption, general public budget expenditure, and the proportion of employment personnel in the tertiary industry in all urban units as input variables. The total retail sales of consumer goods, urbanization rate, average annual concentration of pm2.5 (popW), and built-up area as output variables. This paper uses DEA method to measure the comprehensive efficiency value, technical efficiency value, and scale efficiency value of new urbanization in Shanghai, and analyzes the influencing factors of urbanization efficiency. The results show the following: (1) The overall level of comprehensive efficiency value, technical efficiency value, and scale efficiency of Shanghai's new-type urbanization are relatively high, especially the technical efficiency basically stays at a high level. The overall trend of scale efficiency and comprehensive efficiency is consistent, and the comprehensive efficiency is greatly influenced by scale efficiency. (2) The technical efficiency of urbanization in Shanghai is close to the optimal, and there is little space for further increasing technological input to improve the comprehensive efficiency of new-type urbanization. The scale efficiency is slightly lower than the technical efficiency, and there is still some space for optimization. (3) In terms of urbanization input indicators, Shanghai's total energy consumption and general public budget input were too much in the early years, which led to the reduction of urbanization efficiency, and the situation has been improved in recent years. In terms of the output index of urbanization, increasing the total retail sales of social consumer goods and the output of built-up area can make the urbanization efficiency of Shanghai reach the optimal efficiency.

Influence Mechanism of New-type Urbanization on Urban Land Use Efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Influence Mechanism of New-type Urbanization on Urban Land Use Efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Does new-type urbanization policy promote green energy efficiency? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Although economy-centered urbanization has been favored by many developing countries, it has brought about serious economic and social challenges while creating an economic miracle. To achieve sustainable development and address the issue of excessive energy consumption caused by traditional urbanization, China began to implement the new-type people-centered urbanization policy since 2014. This paper is the first to theoretically analyze the mechanism and impact of new-type urbanization policy (NUP) on green energy efficiency (GEE). By using the panel data of 285 Chinese cities during 2003–2017, after measuring GEE considering environmental constraints, this paper examines the impact and its mechanism of NUP on GEE. The results show that in comparison to non-pilot cities, the implementation of NUP could prevent GEE from improving, and lower GEE by 0.060 on average. After a series of tests, the main conclusion remains robust. Mechanism analysis indicates that NUP can affect GEE through green technical efficiency and green technological progress. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that under the constraints of different urban industries, resource endowment, city size, economic development stage, and urban administrative level, NUP has diverse impacts on GEE. Corresponding policy implications are proposed accordingly to improve GEE.

Can new-type urbanization promote the green intensive use of land?

An analysis of how new-type urbanization in China impacts the green intensive use of land not only provides us with an important reference basis, but also helps support decision-making when promoting new-type urbanization. This paper theoretically analyzes how new-type urbanization influences the green intensive use of land and takes the implementation of China's new-type urbanization plan (2014–2020) as a quasi-natural experiment. To empirically analyze the impact and mechanism of new-type urbanization on the green intensive use of land, we take the panel data of 285 Chinese cities from 2007 to 2020 and use the Difference-in-differences method. Results show that new-type urbanization facilitates green intensive use of land, a conclusion which is verified by several robustness tests. Furthermore, the effects are heterogeneous with respect to urbanization stage and urban scale, both of which exert a stronger driving effect in the later stages of urbanization and in large cities. Further analysis of the mechanism shows that new-type urbanization can promote green intensive land use through an innovation effect, a structural effect, a planning effect and an ecological effect.