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.