Why supply land for public housing?: Disaggregating economic influence on land for public housing in China

Why do some local governments in China supply high proportions of land for public housing, while others refrain from doing so? In this paper, I disaggregate and evaluate the local elite influences on land allocation behaviors. Using a comprehensive dataset on prefectural level land allocation, I found that the relative industry size of manufacturing and service industry are positively associated with higher proportion of land allocated for public housing. This suggests that manufacturing and service industry elites have a positive impact on the land supply for public housing. Additionally, no sufficient evidence is found on the policy preferences or influence from real estate elites on land supply behaviors.