The Impact of Technology Innovation on Urban Land Intensive Use in China: Evidence from 284 Cities in China

How to improve the level of urban land intensive use (ULIU) has been of wide concern to academic circles. Technology innovation, as the internal driving force of economic development, has an important impact on ULIU. To clarify the impacts of technology innovation on ULIU, this study measures the ULIU level index of China from 2006 to 2019 from four dimensions: the input-output level of economic efficiency, the carrying capacity of ecological environment, the harmony of the man-land relationship and the rationality of relationships between regions. On this basis, as there are different production technologies and land use technologies between cities, the differences of ULIU in different regions are analysed. Using the spatial econometric model, this study empirically analyzes the impact of technology innovation on ULIU. In addition, considering the differences in geographical distribution, natural resource endowment and technological type, this study analyzes the heterogeneous impact of technology innovation on ULIU. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The level of ULIU and technology innovation in China is increasing year by year. The level of ULIU and technology innovation in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions. (2) From the spatial perspective, ULIU has a significant positive spatial spillover effect. (3) On the whole, technology innovation significantly improves the level of ULIU. (4) The impact of technology innovation in different regions, different types of cities and different types of technologies on ULIU is heterogeneous. Our results not only enrich the research on the relationship between technology innovation and ULIU, but also provide a reference for the formulation of relevant policies.