Management Studies, May-June 2021, Vol. 9, No. 3, 190-202 doi: 10.17265/2328-2185/2021.03.003 D D AV I D PUBLISHING A Comparative Study on the Land Use Efficiency of Three Urban Agglomerations—Based on the Three-Stage DEA Model Yang Lu Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, China This paper uses a three-stage DEA model to measure the land use efficiency of the three major urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and the Pearl River Delta from 2007 to 2018. The following conclusions are drawn through research: first, the urban land use efficiency of the three major urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and the Pearl River Delta all showed a downward trend, with the rates of decline being 6.06%, 2.86%, and 24.34% respectively. In particular, the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration had the largest decline. Second, the overall urban land use efficiency of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration is relatively high, and the amount of redundancy is relatively small. The rate of decline is significantly lower than the urban land use efficiency of the two major urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. The land use efficiency of the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations is in a state of continuous decline. Third, the proportion of cities with the effectiveness of returns to scale of urban land use efficiency in the three major urban agglomerations has decreased by 10.53%, 10%, and 33.34%, respectively. The Pearl River Delta has the largest decline. Fourth, the land use efficiency of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration is quite different. The central-peripheral phenomenon is evident for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomerations and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations. Keywords: three-stage DEA model; three city groups; land use efficiency Introduction Since the reform and opening up, Chinese economy has achieved rapid development and achieved the “Chinese miracle” that has attracted worldwide attention. Along with the rapid economic development, major breakthroughs have been made in urbanization, but what followed is that a large amount of land used to be agricultural land, but now gradually have been changed to industrial land and urban land. With the rapid advancement of the urbanization process and the steady increase in the urbanization rate, the scale of urban land use in China is also expanding. In 2007, China’s urban built-up area was approximately 35,500 square kilometers. In 2018, China’s urban built-up area reached approximately 58,400 square kilometers1, an increase of 64.5% over 2007. The continuous expansion of the scale of the city requires a large amount of land resources. In the case of a sharp increase in land demand, the irrational structure of land use and the scattered distribution of land have caused the problems of extensive and inefficient use of urban land and continue to aggravate. Yang Lu, Ph.D., lecturer, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, China. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Yang Lu, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, No. 169, Shuanggang East Street, Changbei National Economic and Technological Development Zone, Nanchang, China. 1 The data come from China City Statistical Yearbook in 2007 and 2018. A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE LAND USE EFFICIENCY 191 Improving the efficiency of urban land use has become an inherent requirement for the construction of a conservation-oriented society and an important measure to achieve sustainable economic and social development. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) clearly proposed that the delineation of the three control lines of ecological protection red line, permanent basic farmland, and urban development boundary should be completed, and an urban pattern with large, medium, and small cities and small towns developing in coordination should be built with urban agglomerations as the main body. Therefore, on the basis of the delineation work, how to obtain the largest economic output and social benefits with the smallest land input, that is, to improve the efficiency of urban land use, has become an important issue that must be addressed in the urbanization process with the theme of urban agglomerations in China. This paper intends to compare the land use efficiency of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta city clusters, and then provide good experience for the development of other urban clusters. Literature Review Regarding the study of urban land use efficiency, the earlier ones were the concentric circle model proposed by Burgess in 1925 and the polycentric theory proposed by Hals and Ullman in 1954 . In recent years, on the basis of early theoretical models and combined with the reality of modern urban development, international academic circles have conducted empirical analysis on how to avoid failures in the land market, the operating mechanism of the land market itself, and the factors affecting the relationship between supply and demand. Bajocco, De Angelis, Perini, Ferrara, and Salvati (2012) used different expansion waves (1960-2010) to conduct a multi-dimensional analysis of the urban land use efficiency index (building area per capita, LUE) of Attica in the Mediterranean city. Studies have shown that low efficiency of urban land use concentrated in coastal areas and marginal areas of Athens in 1960, but the most remote rural areas of the least efficient in 2010. Fetzel, Niedertscheider, Haberl, Krausmann, and Erb (2016) used the human occupancy of net primary productivity (HANPP) framework to analyze the land system and its dynamics in Africa from 1980 to 2005. Studies have shown that there may be potential to improve biomass production efficiency in terms of existing land use, rather than increasing production through further land expansion. Masini, Tomao, Barbati, Corona, Serra, and Salvati (2019) conducted a multi-dimensional analysis of land use efficiency on the per capita construction area of 417 metropolitan areas from 27 European countries. Studies have shown that rich cities are characterized by high land use efficiency, and under the background of diversified urban landscapes, land use efficiency has increased. Chinese scholars have carried out extensive and in-depth research on the efficiency of urban land use in China based on relevant foreign theories and models. Huang, Zhang, Lu, and Yang (2018) used a spatial measurement model to study the spatial effect of land supply structure on economic growth, and the results showed that land supply structure has a certain spatial spillover to economic growth and there are differences in land use types. Other scholars use data envelopment analysis to measure and evaluate the efficiency of urban land supply in China. Xiong, Han, and Bao (2017) used panel data to calculate the land use efficiency of nine cities in the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. The results show that the growth of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of land use in urban agglomerations in the Pearl River Delta is gradually slowing down. The main way to improve land use efficiency is to improve land use technology in the future. Yang, Wen, and Zhong (2018) took 108 cities at prefecture level and above in the Yangtze River Economic 192 A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE LAND USE EFFICIENCY Zone as the research object, and used DEA model and Malmquist index to conduct static and dynamic analysis of urban land use efficiency. The results show that the overall land use efficiency is at a low level, and the spatial pattern shows that the downstream area is significantly higher than the middle and upper reaches, and the area south of the Yangtze River is significantly higher than the north area. Li and Hu (2020) took the urban land use of nine prefecture-level cities in Jilin Province as the research object, and used the DEA method to calculate urban land use efficiency from two dimensions of time and space from 2007 to 2016. From the above literature, whether it is theoretical model or empirical analysis, the research objects are basically individual cities or urban agglomerations, and there is a lack of comparative research on them. In addition, the empirical analysis method of land use efficiency is mainly (DEA), but Fried (2002) pointed out that the traditional DEA model did not consider the impact of environmental factors and random noise on the efficiency evaluation of decision-making units. Therefore, this paper adopts the three-stage DEA model based on Fried (2002) to compare the land use efficiency of the three major urban agglomerations in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta, hoping to provide valuable experience for the reform of “crossing the river by feeling the stones” in land use in developed areas. Model and Indicator System Construction Study Area The regions studied in this paper are the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. There are 10 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin- Hebei urban agglomeration: Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao, Baoding, Cangzhou, Chengde, Zhangjiakou, Langfang. There are 16 cities in the Yangtze River Delta City Group2: Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nantong, Taizhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Zhoushan, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Taizhou. There are 9 cities in the Pearl River Delta City Group3: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhaoqing, Foshan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen. According to China City Statistical Yearbooks in 2008 and 2018, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration, the land use area (square kilometers) of built-up areas increased from 2,389, 3,836, and 2,013 to 3,602, 5,952, and 4,529 respectively, with an average annual growth rate of 2.97%, 3.19%, and 5.96%, and they are still growing.