Abstract
Seeking innovative development has become a necessity for global cities because of the accelerating consumption of natural resources and the increasing need for urgent control of environmental pollution. However, few studies have reported on the effect of innovative development on the green economic growth of resource-based cities. Therefore, this study aimed to construct the SBM model of unexpected output to measure the efficiency of green economic growth using data of 108 resource-based cities in China from 2004 to 2018, and to analyze the impact of innovative development and resource endowment on green economic growth using the systematic Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model. The following results were obtained: first, the green economic growth efficiency of resource-based cities exhibited a general trend of fluctuation and rise, but the efficiency of different resource-based cities was different in time and space. Second, although innovative development promoted the green economic growth of resource-based cities, the impact of different resource-based cities was heterogeneous. Innovative development promoted the green economic growth of resource-based cities in eastern China, comprehensive cities, metal cities, growth cities, and renewable cities. However, it had an inhibitory effect on the green economic growth of northeast China, west China, and oil–gas and nonmetal resource–based cities, but no significant effect on the green economic growth of other resource-based cities. Third, the nonlinear effect of resource endowment on the green economic growth of resource-based cities was not significant, but resource endowment had a “curse” effect on green economic growth. Meanwhile, heterogeneity analysis showed two effects of resource endowment on the green economic growth in different resource-based cities: curse and blessing. Fourth, the impact of innovative development on the green economic growth of resource-based cities was moderated by resource endowment. The impact of innovative development on green economic growth decreased with the increase in resource endowment. Therefore, resource-based cities should not only constantly increase innovation and improve resource utilization efficiency but also actively promote coordination and cooperation of regional resource-based industries so as to achieve green and sustainable development.
Highlights
Resource-based cities refer to cities that take mining and processing of mineral resources, forests, and other natural resources as the leading industries (Zhang et al, 2014; Yu et al, 2019)
The results showed that the green economic growth efficiency of resource-based cities in China exhibited an overall trend of rising fluctuation from 2004 to 2018, and the curve trend of green technological progress was basically the same as that of the green economic value-added index
The curve trend of green technological efficiency index, green economic growth index, and green technological progress index was opposite in 2017, which indicated that the green economic growth of resource-based cities in China mainly depended on the improvement in the green technological progress index, and accelerating technological innovation was conducive to the improvement in green economic growth (Zhai and An, 2021)
Summary
Resource-based cities refer to cities that take mining and processing of mineral resources, forests, and other natural resources as the leading industries (Zhang et al, 2014; Yu et al, 2019). Among the 293 prefecture-level cities in China, 126 are resource-based cities, accounting for 43% of the total. Among the 293 prefecture-level cities in China, 126 are resource-based cities, accounting for 43% of the total1 They rank among the top in China in terms of natural resources such as coal, oil, iron ore, and rare Earth. They are essential energy resource supplies and reserve bases in China and have contributed significantly to the economic development of China. According to the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-based Cities (2013–2020), the resource-based cities in the mature stage and the decline stage account for about 80% of the 262 resource-based cities in China. Some resource-based cities are even “empty cities” and “ghost cities,” and some cities are called “cities that cannot be seen on satellite.” Industrial transformation and environmental pollution seriously restrict the sustainable development of resource-based cities (Hou et al, 2019; Meng et al, 2021)
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