Industrial Land Use Efficiency: Measurement, Evolution, the Role of Development Zones

1. Introduction

 The purposes of this project are to systematically explore the measurement method and evolution mode of industrial land use efficiency (ILUE) and to elaborate the influence mechanism of development zones on ILUE. So far, one paper has been published, and the project has also provided solutions of inefficient industrial land identification and optimization for Hangzhou and Guangzhou.

2. Main content

2.1 Does the establishment of development zones really improve industrial land use efficiency?

 As a popular form of land use worldwide, development zones (DZs) are selected and supported by authorities to accelerate structural transformation. Although the establishment of DZs is regarded to boost regional economic growth, whether or not it really improves industrial land use efficiency (ILUE) has not been adequately examined. Using firm-level data collected from Hangzhou, a typical megacity in China, geographically weighted regression is first applied to examine the spatially nonstationary associations between ILUE and potential determinants, and variance partitioning analysis is further used to compare the relative importance of the ILUE determinants. Then, hypothesis testing and Heckman selection model are utilized to quantify the impact of different types of DZs on ILUE. Results show that DZs influence firm-level ILUE through selection effect, policy effect, cluster effect and location effect. Most DZs except the high-tech industry development zones fail to improve ILUE as expected, because of the abuse of preferential policy and the weak enforcement of intensive industrial land use policies. Implications are formulated for policy makers to improve ILUE within the context of high-quality development.

2.2 A comparative study on evaluation methods of ILUE

 Considering the vague connotation of “efficiency”, scholars have not reached a consensus on the definition of ILUE. Some scholars have emphasized the meaning of “intensive land use” and established multidimensional indicators of development intensity, economic benefits and land use structure. In addition, a single indicator represented by land output intensity has also been widely used, especially in the cases of discussing the different influential factors of ILUE. Other studies understand efficiency from the perspective of “productivity”. In this context, total factor productivity (TFP), data envelopment analysis (DEA), the directional distance function and the Malmquist index, which are concerned with measuring production efficiency when considering industrial land as a kind of input or estimating the contribution of industrial land input, are widely adopted. The present study attempts to compare different methods for evaluating the efficiency of ILUE at the micro level and to provide a general method selection framework.

2.3 Evolution of ILUE and the role of development zones

  The current research attempts to discuss the evolution mode of land use efficiency of Chinese industrial enterprises on a national scale with a long time span and analyze the role of development zones in the evolution.

2.4 Inefficient industrial land identification and optimization

2.4.1 Solutions for Hangzhou

 The report evaluates the performance of industrial enterprises of Hangzhou from the perspectives of land use, quantity and equality, agglomeration. Then, the integration effect of industrial platforms is verified. The models in the report are mainly developed from the aspects of current situation evaluation, spatial pattern recognition and efficiency measurement.

2.4.2 Solutions for Guangzhou

  On the one hand, the input, output and bearing capacity of land are the most important factors to determine the level of intensive utilization.Based on this, the comprehensive index system of intensive utilization of industrial land is established from the two dimensions of industrial land utilization intensity and industrial land output intensity. The weight of each index is determined comprehensively by entropy weight method and analytic hierarchy process, and then the comprehensive index of intensive utilization is obtained by the weighted index method.Based on the comprehensive index, firstly, the whole inefficient industrial land is identified by threshold value identification, and then the contiguous inefficient industrial land is determined by local spatial autocorrelation analysis.On the other hand, the comprehensive efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of industrial land are calculated by data envelopment method, and then the development status of enterprises and industries carried by industrial land is analyzed.Then, from two aspects of scale potential and economic potential, the industrial land excavation depth is quantitatively calculated to clearly grasp the industrial land inventory and potential benefits.Finally, based on the pure technical efficiency and scale potential, the inefficient industrial land to be transformed is divided into the policy support type, rectification and promotion type and closure and elimination type through the comprehensive matrix method, so as to put forward the classification and activation strategy of the existing land.

3. Summary of my contributions

• Put forward an innovative conceptual framework, looking in depth at the effect of fiscal incentives and admittance criterion of development zones.
• Explored the discrepancy of industrial land use efficiency between in-zone and out-zone firms through well designed empirical study, which adopted GWR and Heckman correction.
• Used DEA and synthesis indicator to evaluate industrial land use efficiency in Hangzhou and Guangzhou.
• Integrated and optimized industrial platforms in Hangzhou through social network analysis.
• Summarize and compare different measures of industrial land use efficiency, and proposed a usage-based method selection framework (in progress).
• Discuss the evolution of land use efficiency of Chinese industrial enterprises from 1993 to 2013 (in progress).

4. Publications

[1] Sun, Y., Su, S., Su, H., 2019. Does the establishment of development zones really improve industrial land use efficiency? Evidence from a typical Chinese megacity and policy implications. Land Use Policy. (In Press)

The other papers are in preparation~