Topic: Land Conversion and Misallocation across Cities in China

Speaker: Junfu Zhang, Clark University 

Time: April 20th, 2018, 13:30–14:45

Venue: Conference Room106, Zhonghui Building 

About the speaker:

Junfu Zhang is an Associate Professor of Economics at Clark University. He specializes in urban and regional economics. His research interests focus on urbanization in China, regional development, entrepreneurship and job creation, and racial housing segregation. He has published in academic journals such as Journal of Urban Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Review of Economics and Statistics, and Urban Studies.

Abstract:

The Chinese government has been using quotas to control the amount of farmland that can be converted for urban uses in different cities every year. Using a sample of more than 1.5 million land-lease transactions during 2007-2016, we document facts on land conversion for urban development in China. We present evidence that land conversion quotas have been increasingly misallocated across cities in that a growing share of land

conversion is occurring in less productive cities. A city-level production function is estimated for counterfactual analysis. Based on estimated parameters, we assess the economic losses from misallocation of land across cities in China and calculate the potential gains from reallocating land quotas to regions or cities where urban land is more productive. We also discuss policy options to improve efficiency.