A0723
Title: Does township-town merger affect the county land supply for polluting industries?
Authors: Xiaodan Zheng - South China Agricultural University (China) [presenting]
Abstract: Land resource allocation is closely related to economic activities, and it is impacted by the administrative division adjustment (ADA). Considering China's special land system, local government is of great significance to understanding land allocation. Exploiting the township-town merger (TTM), a difference-in-difference (DID) model is constructed to investigate the impact of ADA on the land transfer of local government in China. It was found that the reform intensified the preference of local governments for land transfer for polluting industries and passed the robustness test. Besides, the reform raises fiscal decentralization at the district/county levels, impacts local governments' horizontal competition, and ultimately increases local governments' preference for the supply of polluting industries' land. And the degree of top-down regulation affects this course. Further evidence indicates that the impact varies depending on the period, place, and economic foundation. The aim is to re-examine the land use effect of the administration-oriented urbanization model, which helps provide new policy ideas for implementing environmental governance in China. Local governments can employ land supply tools to implement environmental governance.
