Land Misallocation and Urban Green Innovation: From the Perspective of Asymmetrical Innovation Theory

Abstract

As the conflict between economic growth and environmental pollution intensifies, green innovation is gradually recognized as a pivotal strategy for promoting sustainable urban development. The unique institution is an important asymmetric resource for innovation activities, so delving into China's land institutional context represents a significant direction for both the theoretical understanding and practical application research of innovation in China. The existing framework inadequately explores the nexus between land misallocation (LM) and urban green innovation (UGI) and fails to reveal the underlying transmission mechanism fully. To bridge this gap, this paper utilizes city-level data from China spanning 2007 to 2020, takes an asymmetric innovation perspective, and empirically tests the impact of two types of land misallocation, industrial LM and sectoral LM, on the relationship between UGI. The results reveal that LM has a significantly direct negative impact on UGI in China. The results are still robust after changing the sample size, substituting explanatory variables, replacing regression models, and running endogeneity tests. Additionally, the negative impact of LM exhibits heterogeneity within sectors and cities of different economic levels, administrative ranks, and dominant industries. The mechanism testing results indicate that LM affects UGI through structural, scale, and agglomeration effects. These conclusions enrich the literature on the impact of institutions on urban green innovation and provide valuable insights into the sustainable development of cities.