The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Cultivated Land Use Eco-Efficiency: Evidence from China

In the context of tightening resource and environmental constraints, quantitative measurement and influencing factors of cultivated land use eco-efficiency (CLUE) have become hot topics in current academic research. Existing studies primarily focus on the influence of natural, social, and economic factors on CLUE but ignore exploring the impact mechanism and effect of environmental policies on CLUE. Therefore, this study aims to explore the impact of environmental regulations on CLUE. To achieve this objective, a super-efficiency slack-based measure (super-SBM) model is used to calculate the CLUE for 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in China from 2000 to 2009. Additionally, the intermediary effect model and the threshold effect model are used to empirically investigate the transmission mechanism and nonlinear characteristics between environmental regulation and the CLUE. The results show that: (1) the temporal dynamics of CLUE exhibit a pattern of initial fluctuating decline followed by gradual growth in China as a whole and across its eastern, central, and western regions. (2) Environmental regulation has a significant negative impact on CLUE, and the effect exhibits a nonlinear characteristic of decreasing marginal effects. (3) Agricultural technological innovation and agricultural industrial structure play a mediating role between environmental regulation and CLUE, reducing the negative impact of environmental regulation on CLUE. This study provides some implications for formulating scientifically sound environmental policies to optimize land use and enhance resource utilization efficiency.