How industrial landscape affects the regional industrial economy: A spatial heterogeneity framework

Abstract This study aims to explore whether and how the industrial landscape that is described by the proportion of industrial land with different expansion patterns, has an impact on regional industrial economies. Using the data of industrial land transaction in China from 2007 to 2014, this paper identifies newly transferred industrial land in 284 prefecture-level cities, classifying the land into infilling, edging and outlying. The panel regression results show the following: a higher proportion of infilling industrial land will have a negative impact on the industrial economy; a higher outlying proportion will have a positive impact on the industrial economy; and edge industrial land will have a short-term negative impact and a long-term positive impact on the industrial economy. In the context of government and market forces, this study builds a framework of spatial heterogeneity impact factors to explain the above phenomenon. The further path analysis shows that the impact factors have different impacts on the investment intensity and production efficiency of industrial enterprises located in industrial land with different expansion patterns, and these impacts may affect the regional industrial economy due to the differences in the proportional distribution of different expansion patterns.