Performance Evaluation of Industrial Land Policy in China

Rapid industrialization, as one of the main driving forces promoting sustainable economic growth, has increased the area of industrial land use significantly. Industrial land use manifests that the competition between it and other kinds of land use is growing. During the last decade in China, many targeted industrial land use policies have been enacted to stimulate appropriate industrial land use and to promote healthy economic development. However, it is difficult for scholars and governments of rapidly developing countries to judge and evaluate the performance of such policies. Based on statistical data gathered over almost 10 years and an idea called “industrial land equivalent” (ILE), this paper analyzes the contribution made by the implementation of industrial land use policy to economic development, using a Cobb-Douglas production function by which to quantify the influence of land institutions and land regulation systems. The result of the study shows that factors, such as industrial land, labor and capital, all play an important role in GDP growth. Additionally, it is found that industrial land institutions and regulation systems have a strongly positive influence on economic development. It was also found that the influence of policy in eastern China is greater than that in the west and that repeated, short-term land regulation has a negative effect on the economy. Therefore, it is profoundly important for the Chinese economy that a stable and durable industrial land use policy be maintained as the industrial center migrates to the Midwest. The research philosophy and method offered by this paper have great significance for the quantitative evaluation of policy performance.