Impacts of land finance on green land use efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt: a spatial econometrics analysis

This paper uses the Global Malmquist-Luenberger Index (GMLI) based on directional distance function (DDF) super efficiency model to measure the urban green land use efficiency (UGLUE) of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2007 to 2018, and it utilizes the spatial economic model to analyze the impact of land finance on the UGLUE and its mechanism of action. The results show that, firstly, the UGLUE in the YREB shows a steady development trend, the overall efficiency level is high, and there are spatial agglomeration characteristics. Secondly, the impact of land finance on the UGLUE presents “inverted U-shaped.” With the continuous expansion of the scale of land finance, the impact of land finance on the UGLUE in the city has changed from positive to negative. Thirdly, land finance has a spatial spillover effect. Land finance will inhibit the improvement of UGLUE in surrounding areas through the “peer effect.” With the continuous expansion of land finance scale, land finance will promote the improvement of UGLUE in surrounding cities through the “warning effect.”