Sustainable land financing in a new urbanization context: theoretical connotations, empirical tests and policy recommendations

This paper explores the theoretical connotation of sustainable land financing and examines its evolution in China. The empirical results demonstrate that the Chinese land financing sustainability index considerably fluctuated from 1999-2011, and has since remained relatively low. It is found that structure disequilibrium, lack of a driving-force mechanism, inefficient income and land financing instability considerably hinder the sustainable development of land financing. It is concluded that reform measures such as transforming local government revenue patterns, adjusting land financing structures and increasing land tax revenue can bring about an improvement. This is not only of theoretical value but also of practical great value for promoting the reform of sustainable land financing.