Government Competition, Land Supply Structure and Semi-Urbanization in China

Population urbanization is crucial to establishing a harmonious society. However, the phenomenon of population semi-urbanization is becoming an issue of ever-increasing concern in China. More and more immigrants from rural areas work and live in the city, but their roots remain in the rural area. This paper aims to analyze the influence mechanism of government competition on population semi-urbanization through land supply structure. The study’s theoretical analysis and empirical analysis results are based on the panel data of 105 key prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2017. The results demonstrate that: (1) land finance and land-motivated investment engendered by government competition lead to an imbalance in the land price structure, further increasing the rate of population semi-urbanization; (2) land finance does not lead to population semi-urbanization through the land area structure; and (3) land-motivated investment aggravates the imbalance in the land area structure, further leading to population semi-urbanization. It is found that government competition in terms of achieving performance indicators affects population semi-urbanization by adjusting the land supply structure. Efforts should be made to achieve the coordinated development of urbanization, given that the increasing rate of population semi-urbanization will almost certainly aggravate social instability