The Impact of Land Conservation and Intensification Policy on Green Land Use Efficiency: The Role of Factor Agglomeration

Low land use efficiency and severe pollution are currently pressing issues in China. Land conservation and intensification policy (LCIP) may offer a promising solution to these challenges. This paper calculates the green land use efficiency (GLUE) for 1,954 counties from 2003 to 2021. Treating the designation of national land resource conservation and intensification demonstration counties as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper uses a staggered difference-in-differences model to examine the LCIP’s impact on the GLUE at the county level. The results indicate that: (1) The GLUE across Chinese counties exhibits significant spatial disparities, with higher efficiency generally observed in the western and central regions. (2) The LCIP significantly enhances the GLUE in demonstration counties by 11.3%, which remains robust across various tests. (3) The LCIP improves the GLUE through factor agglomeration, including technology, capital, and labor. (4) The impact of LCIP on the GLUE is more pronounced in non-resource-dependent counties, areas with higher industrial activity, and regions with smaller cropland areas. (5) The LCIP may have a significant positive impact on the GLUE of the surrounding counties and exhibit a dissemination effect. This study provides a novel perspective for enhancing county-level GLUE in China and offers valuable insights for the design of LCIP in other countries.