The Chinese government is committed to its goal of building a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society (RES). The hope is that establishing an RES will accelerate social and economic development, improve resource utilization, and transform industrialization. This paper focuses on the Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan urban agglomeration (CZTUA) in Hunan Province, which is a pilot for the RES, as an example. A slack-based measure model based on data envelopment analysis was used to evaluate industrial land use efficiency (ILUE), which includes undesirable outputs. We collected panel data from 2003 to 2018 and used the difference-in-differences method to investigate whether the ILUE in the CZTUA has improved since the implementation of the RES in 2007. The results showed that: (1) the ILUE in the CZTUA increased from 0.25 in 2003 to 0.48 in 2018; (2) from 2007 to 2018, the establishment of the RES increased the ILUE in the CZTUA by 24.6%; (3) gross domestic product and the secondary industry structure ratio had key roles in improving the ILUE in the CZTUA; (4) there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development and the ILUE in the CZTUA; (5) since the establishment of the RES, the pollution emission index of the CZTUA has clearly decreased each year. These findings not only provide a reference for the Chinese government for following up the formation of the RES and its promotion in other regions of China, but may also contribute to sustainable economic development in other transitional countries in the world.

The study investigates how the agricultural sector can respond to a growing non-food biomass demand. Taking Germany as an example, a stylized case of biomass production under conditions of technological advance and constantly growing demand is modelled. It is argued that biomass producers might seek to adjust their farm size by simultaneously optimizing benefits from the production scale and transaction cost savings, where transaction costs are measured using Data Envelopment Analysis. The results extend the debate on transaction costs and structural change in agriculture by revealing a possible synergy and trade-off between transaction cost savings and benefits from (dis)economies of scale. They show that if larger farms cannot economize on transaction costs, then investments in land and labor, needed to adjust to higher biomass demand, partly compromise the returns to scale, which decelerates the farm size growth. A higher degree of asset specificity gives rise to transaction costs and reduces the rate at which the farm size decreases. Smaller producers may disproportionally benefit from their higher potential of transaction cost savings, if advanced technologies can offset the scale advantage of larger farms. The findings inform policymakers to consider this complex effect when comparing the opportunities of smaller and larger agricultural producers in the bioeconomy.

The ongoing collectively owned commercialized construction land market (CCCLM), established in China in 2015, calls for a deeper understanding of the market’s performance so as to promote integrated urban-rural development. This study provides an empirical analysis of the regional heterogeneity of CCCLM, based on 4595 collectively owned commercialized construction land (CCCL) transaction cases around the country from 2015 to 2020. The marketization degree measured with a weighted average approach indicates that the marketization level of CCCL is low, and typical pilots have a significant demonstration effect. The results show that pilot areas in the east have more active CCCL transactions, with higher quantities, areas, and transaction values of CCCL compared with central and western regions. However, most pilot areas use villagers’ self-governance organizations or mixed subjects as the implementation players, and trade CCCL by negotiation or listed conveyance. It turns out that the value of CCCL cannot be better realized in such a market environment because of its low degree of specialization and marketization. This study presents comprehensive empirical evidence for promoting the construction of the rural land market in China and in other transition economies worldwide.