# Does Intensive Land Use Contribute to Energy Efficiency?--Evidence Based on a Spatial Durbin Model
## 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Hypotheses
### Intensive Land Use and Energy Efficiency  
However, the intensive use of land may have a spatial effect on energy efficiency, that is, the level of intensive use of land in a certain city will have an impact on the energy efficiency of surrounding cities. Existing research on pollution transfer issues from the perspectives of environmental regulation, foreign direct investment, foreign trade, economic growth, etc., verify the existence of a \"polluted paradise\" or \"pollution refuge\" [16]. China is a large developing country. For a long time, due to the huge differences in geographical conditions and resource endowments between regions, there has been a long-term large imbalance in the level of regional economic development. For areas with high levels of development, in order to improve the quality of local economic development and realize the upgrading of the industrial structure, those industries with high pollution intensity and obvious negative externalities of production may be transferred out [17]. However, low-level development areas may have undertaken this part of the industrial transfer due to their economic growth as their primary goal. Therefore, for regions with low development levels, integration into large economic zones or urban agglomerations may face greater ecological environmental challenges while gaining industrial transfer and economic division of labor dividends. Theoretically, the \"Pollution Haven Hypothesis\" (PHH) from the international division of labor indicates that, in the process of advancing international economic integration, regions with low levels of development may face the threat of pollution transfer from regions with high levels of development [18]. In other words, when there is a clear gap in the level of economic development between regions, the transfer of industries may be selective due to the inconsistent preference for economic growth and environmental pollution. Those late-developing areas with lower environmental requirements may become \"pollution refuges\" for pollution-intensive industries [19]. This pollution transfer effect caused by the difference in the level of economic development has been supported by many documents between developed and developing regions [20]. Therefore, the implementation of the intensive use of land in a certain city may lead to the transfer of industries from that city to surrounding cities, thereby improving the energy efficiency of the city and reducing the energy efficiency of surrounding cities. However, this effect can be reduced to a certain extent. Regional integration effectively reduces the administrative barriers to the flow of factors and commodities, promotes the spatial allocation and integration of industrial resources and plays an important role in coordinating regional economic development and tapping the potential for economic growth through government cooperation between localities (regional integration in this article refers to economic integration, that is, the elimination of artificial factors that hinder the effective operation of the economy). Through mutual cooperation and unification, multiple separate economies are integrated into a large economy, so that goods and factors tend to flow freely in this large economy [21]. In recent years, with the implementation of the new urbanization development strategy, government cooperation within urban agglomerations has continued to deepen, and the integrated construction of urban agglomerations as a space carrier has attracted more and more attention from scholars [22]. This article suggests that spatial integration could be used to explore the inhibitory effect of intensive land use on the energy efficiency of surrounding cities for the following reasons: first, the spatial integration will to a large extent produce the coordinated development of governance capabilities within the spatial scope, which will lead to the coordinated governance of pollution across regions.