A study on the influencing factors of total factor productivity of cultivated land resource utilization: evidences from direct influence and spatial spillover in China

This paper provides a new perspective for the study on the influencing factors of total factor productivity of cultivated land resource utilization (CL-TFP). Due to the dynamic continuity and spatial dependence of CL-TFP, this paper analyses the main factors affecting CL-TFP. The results show that regional urban–rural income level difference has a significant positive spatial autocorrelation on cultivated land resources. From the perspective of spatial action effect, land acquisition reduces the cultivated land area of a single province but increases the CL-TFP of neighboring provinces. In terms of direct effects, the short-term and long-term effects of urban and rural income are both positive on CL-TFP, and the long-term positive effect is significantly greater than the short-term positive effect; the impact of land expropriation area on CL-TFP is negative both in the short term and the long term. As for indirect effects, only the short-term and long-term effects of land acquisition are positive, while that of other significant variables are negative. The policy constraints and social systems affect CL-TFP by the technology effect, scale effect and scope effect, respectively. Therefore, this paper proposes to promote CL-TFP by improving the urbanization land use, agricultural population transfer and optimizing the land use allocation.