The Impact of Land Marketization on Urban Resilience: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Cities

Enhancing urban resilience (UR) is the pivotal strategy for achieving sustainable development. Given that land serves as the cornerstone of urban activities, it is imperative to examine the relationship between land marketization (LM) and urban resilience amidst the profound market-oriented land reforms in China. After establishing the conceptual framework of urban resilience, this paper assesses the temporal and spatial dynamics and empirically investigates the impact of land marketization on urban resilience, drawing on data from 282 cities across China, spanning from 2001 to 2021. Our findings reveal several important insights. First, due to its public bidding and competitive pricing mechanisms, land marketization is a powerful measure to foster urban resilience and enables cities to flexibly respond to various challenges and changes. Second, the indirect mechanisms, including optimizing resource allocation, upgrading industrial structure, and fostering technological innovation, are crucial pathways through which land marketization affects urban resilience. Finally, the impact of land marketization on urban resilience varies across regions and city size. Cities with better geographic locations, larger population sizes, and lower administrative levels are more significantly affected than others. These findings reveal the importance of land marketization in strengthening urban resilience, thereby providing theoretical guidance and empirical references for cities to enhance urban resilience through land marketization.