The Impact of China’s Land Marketization on Urban Industrial Pollution

Different from the existing literatures, this study innovatively explores the impact of China’s quasi market on pollution. This study examines the impact of local government interventions in the land market and structural distortions on industrial pollution in Chinese cities, using data from 287 prefecture-level cities between 2007 and 2017. Our findings reveal three key results: (1) The level of land marketization has a significant inverted-U relationship with industrial wastewater and sulfur dioxide emissions, indicating that land market liberalization initially exacerbates pollution but eventually leads to improvements. (2) Distortions in land supply exacerbate industrial pollution, with structural supply factors significantly contributing to water, air, and waste pollution. (3) Regional differences exist, with land marketization and supply distortions having varying effects across eastern, central, and western regions. These results suggest that local governments’ land policies play a crucial role in shaping environmental outcomes and provide insights into how land use regulations could be adjusted to balance industrial growth and environmental protection. Despite its contributions, the study has limitations, including the use of data from a specific time period, potential biases in the sampling method. Future research could address these limitations by exploring longer time frames, using more representative samples, and incorporating additional data sources to enhance the robustness of the findings.