Response to urban land scarcity in growing megacities: Urban containment or inter-city connection?

• Published in: Cities 2020-01, Vol.96, p.102399, Article 102399
• Main Authors: Mao, Xiyan, Huang, Xianjin, Song, Yaya, Zhu, Yi, Tan, Qichuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cities; City agglomeration; City size; Containment; Economic models; Efficiency; Land; Megacities; Scale economies; Scarcity; Urban containment; Urban growth; Urban land scarcity
• ISSN: 0264-2751; 1873-6084
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2019.102399

Maintaining city growth without straining land is one of the global goals for sustainability, requiring global efforts and local experiences. This goal relates to the ongoing debate over controlling city size based on its environmental capacity. This study argues that urban land-use is not a matter of scale but efficiency, especially in response to land scarcity issues. The two sides of this debate capture the local (urban containment) and nonlocal (inter-city connection) channels for efficiency promotion, which should be complementary. Using thirteen prefectural-level cities in Jiangsu Province, China during 2001–2016 as a case, we apply the Cobb-Douglas Production Function and the fixed effect model to examine the effects of urban containment and inter-city connection on urban land-use efficiency. Empirical results reveal that the scale economies of urban land can fade out or even shift to scale diseconomies as the urban land continues to expand. Inter-city connection as a non-local channel can effectively extend scale economies beyond administrative boundaries, continuing to improve urban land-use efficiency. The market-based containment also benefits urban land-use efficiencies by producing displacement effects. In contrast, the policy-driven containment, as a popular local solution in practice, tends to be less effective. •Urban land-use is not a matter of scale but efficiency in response to scarcity.•Urban land-use efficiency is subject to local containment and nonlocal connection.•Inter-city connection extends scale economies of land beyond city boundaries.•Market-based containment improves urban land-use efficiency.•Policy-driven containment tends to be less efficient.