Influential Effect and Mechanism of Digital Finance on Urban Land Use Efficiency in China

With the acceleration of urbanization, the carrying capacity of urban land resources is increasingly being challenged. Thus, urban land use efficiency (ULUE) has been a crucial issue in sustainable development, and digital finance (DF) has been thought to be an effective solution for solving this dilemma. Based on panel data from 283 cities in China spanning from 2011 to 2020, this study first utilized the super-efficiency SBM model to assess ULUE across China. Then, the panel Tobit model was employed to empirically examine the overall impact of DF on ULUE, while the intermediary effect model was utilized to analyze the indirect impact of DF on ULUE. Additionally, the threshold effect model was employed to investigate the non-linear characteristics of the impact of DF on ULUE. The findings indicate that: (1) DF can enhance ULUE, with the dimension of application depth of DF exerting the most significant impact, followed by the dimensions of coverage breadth and digitization degree of DF; (2) DF can boost ULUE by promoting industrial structure upgrading (ISU); (3) the promotional effect of DF on ULUE exhibits regional variations, with a stronger impact observed in the western region and provincial capital cities, but weaker effects noted in the eastern and central regions as well as non-provincial capital cities; (4) with the improvement of economic development and DF, the impact of DF on ULUE exhibits a slightly increasing nonlinear trend. The research findings presented in this paper offer valuable insights for enhancing ULUE in emerging economies.