LAUSR

Abstract Social infrastructure is essential for meeting the basic social needs of residents and improving their quality of life. Since the establishment of the Land Use Rights system, China has adopted a land financing scheme under which the LURs conveyance fees generated from land supply for profitable use is the major resource of local revenue, while land supply for social infrastructure has somewhat been overlooked. Based on a 10-year (2007 to 2016) panel data, this study analyses the spatio-temporal characteristics of land supply for social infrastructure in China. Taking 285 prefecture-level cities as the case study, it analyses the local governments’ motivation in supplying land of social infrastructure. The results of double fixed-effect regression model show that the motivation of local governments is leasing more residential land to earn land revenue rather than strengthening areas of weakness in public goods. This study concludes with implications for improving land supply policies for social infrastructure.