The Impact Of The Five-year Plan On The Expansion Of Urban Construction Land

Since reform and opening-up,China's economic development has undergone earthshaking changes.Correspondingly,the urban construction land has risen rapidly.Since the power of land expropriation and transferring is concentrated in the local governments,the urban construction land can't be expanded without local governments' guiding.The reason why local governments are willing to expand the urban construction land is the tax-sharing reform,political centralization and the use of land and its income.After the tax-sharing reform,the local governments transferred most their fiscal power to the central government,however,the matters that the local governments handle were left behind.Facing the growing fiscal gap,the local governments had to find another way out.Since the land-transferring fees belong to the local governments rather than the central government,the document named “Interim Regulations of the People's Republic of China Concerning the Assignment and Transfer of the Right to the Use of the State-owned Land in the Urban Areas” has given local governments a new way to earn money,while the document named “Notice of the State Council on Further Deepening the Reform of Urban Housing System and Accelerating Housing Construction” has further fueled the enthusiasm of local governments to expand the residential and commercial land,the local governments' fiscal gaps have been shorten to a certain extent,besides,land prices and housing prices have also risen.Since Chinese government officials are in a closed “internal labor market”,local governments not only face fiscal incentives,but also face political incentives.If local officials want to be promoted,the major factor for higher-level governments to promote local officials is that local officials must win in the promotion tournament about GDP growth.This explains why the local governments are willing to expand industrial land although the price isn't high.Because the industrial land is used for attracting investments,the introduced enterprises can raise the local GDP during the construction period and the operation period,improve the local employment rate and wage level,and further improve the local economic.In turn,the local officials' chances of winning in the promotion tournament will be improved.On the other hand,as the most important document published by the Chinese government,The Five-Year Plan plans the development goals of economic development,science,technology and education,resources and environment,and people's livelihood.Not only will the central government publish The Five-Year Plan,but also the provinces,cities and ministries.With the central government's approval,the local Five-Year Plan not only links up with the national Five-Year Plan,but also adds goals including higher economic growth and fiscal revenue growth.Therefore,the behavior of local governments will be greatly affected by The Five-Year Plan.The local governments can't complete The FiveYear Plan without the various land resources and the land-transferring fees.Thus,land resources will also be affected by The Five-Year Plan cycle and show periodic changes.So,how the local governments will expand urban construction land within The Five-Year Plan,and what other factors will affect the local governments to expand the urban construction land within The Five-Year Plan,which are the core issues of this paper.This paper uses the panel data of 282 cities in China from 2006 to 2015 to empirically study the impact of The Five-Year Plan on the expansion of urban construction land.The results of empirical analysis show that the urban construction land will show a process of expansion that accelerates first and then decelerates within The Five-Year Plan,besides,the factor of the party congress will also have an impact on the expansion of urban construction land.Specifically,compared with the cities of provinces where the provincial party congress is not held in the first year of The Five-Year Plan,the cities of provinces that hold the provincial party congress in the first year of The Five-Year Plan chose to slow down the expansion of urban construction land in the first year because of the party congress.What's more,the local governments will evaluate their development in the previous stage in the third year of The Five-Year Plan due to the mid-term evaluation,and then make corresponding arrangements and adjustments for the next stage.Specifically,compared with those cities that have developed well in the previous stage and do not maintain “growth pressure”,those cities that find “growth pressure” in the mid-term evaluation will significantly expand urban construction land in the third year in order to complete The FiveYear Plan.Finally,according to the conclusion of the study,the author draws up the policy suggestion that controlling the problem of the expansion of urban construction land,establishing different construction land controlling measures according to the local conditions,scientifically guiding the construction of new districts,strengthening The FiveYear Plan to control urban construction land,strongly developing new economy through The Five-Year Plan,reforming the government performance appraisal system and the way to obtain income,reforming the power of land expropriation and transferring and so on.