Urban land expansion, fiscal decentralization and haze pollution: Evidence from 281 prefecture-level cities in China

Urban land expansion will influence aspects of economy and society, including the quality of the urban envi-ronment. This study aims to examine the impacts of urban land expansion in China on haze pollution under the fiscal decentralization system using the spatial Durbin model. Urban land expansion is measured using two di-mensions of urban land expansion, namely, intensity and orderliness of the structure of urban land expansion. The results reveal that urban haze pollution in China exhibits significant positive spillover characteristics, which manifest as high-high and low-low characteristics of spatial agglomeration. In general, improving the expansion intensity of urban land and the orderly structure of urban land expansion can reduce haze pollution in local and surrounding areas. With the improvement of the degree of fiscal decentralization, the positive effect of an orderly urban land structure in reducing haze pollution will be weakened. The above-mentioned influences depict distinct heterogeneities at the levels of city size, type, and location.

Automated summary

This study examines the impacts of urban land expansion in China on haze pollution, revealing the importance of urban land expansion for the quality of the urban environment. The results show that improving the intensity and structure of urban land expansion can reduce haze pollution, and these impacts vary across cities in terms of size, type, and location.