When Land Loses Its Proper Use and Firms Lose Their Gains: How Does Industrial Land Allocation Imbalance Affect Enterprise Benefits?

Industrial land allocation imbalance is a prominent issue constraining China's high-quality economic development. Taking industrial enterprises in Jiangsu Province as the research subject, this paper theoretically analyzes and empirically examines the mechanisms and spatial spillover effects of industrial land allocation imbalance on enterprise benefits. The results show that industrial land allocation imbalance has a significant negative impact on enterprise benefits; it suppresses enterprise benefits growth by inducing irrational enterprise behaviors such as over-investment and inefficient expansion; heterogeneity analysis reveals that at the regional level, the negative impact is strongest in central Jiangsu, followed by southern Jiangsu and weakest in northern Jiangsu, while at the scale level the inhibitory effect on non-above-scale enterprises significantly exceeds that on above-scale enterprises; furthermore, the spatial interaction between local governments' "race to the bottom" and inter-enterprise competition generates significant negative spatial spillover effects on enterprise benefits, with more pronounced impacts on resource-intensive enterprises. Accordingly, it is recommended to promote market-oriented reform of industrial land allocation, deepen fiscal institutional reform to regulate local government competition, implement regionally differentiated and precise land supply, and improve enterprise land use supervision and optimize factor allocation efficiency.