ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1676352
This article is part of the Research TopicDynamic Land Use and Socioeconomic-Environmental Interaction Patterns: Bridging Sustainability and DevelopmentView all 12 articles
Does the innovation of digital economy policies improve land allocation efficiency?-A quasi-natural experiment based on the national digital economy innovation and development pilot zone
Provisionally accepted
- 1Liaoning University, Shenyang, China
- 2Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang, China
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This article employs a difference-in-difference model, using panel data from 276 cities spanning the period from 2006 to 2022, to analyze the impact of establishing pilot zones on land allocation efficiency. The research results indicate that: (1) Establishing the pilot zones has a significant positive effect on land allocation efficiency, which is robust to various tests. This not only validates the efficacy of the policy but also suggests its potential for radiating influence, providing a viable model for broader regional implementation. (2) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy's positive effect on land allocation efficiency is more pronounced in key environmentally protected cities than in non-key cities. Among the regional heterogeneity, the policy effects of northwest cities along the Hu Huanyong Line are the largest, followed by cities along the Hu Huanyong Line, and the policy effects of southeast cities along the Hu Huanyong Line are the smallest. (3) Mechanism testing indicates that pilot zones improve land allocation efficiency by promoting economic growth, industrial agglomeration, and green innovation. This evidence provides policymakers with multidimensional optimization paths.
Keywords: The national digital economy innovation and development pilot zone, digital economy, policy innovation, Land allocation efficiency, Difference-in-difference model
Received: 30 Jul 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Congxin Li, licongxin@126.com
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