Environmental Regulation, Financial Pressure and Industrial Ecological Efficiency of Resource-Based Cities in China: Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Impact Mechanism

Abstract

A resource-based city is a type of city characterized by the exploitation and processing of natural resources as the leading industry in the region. Such cities provide essential resources for China’s economic development and support long-term rapid economic growth. However, resource-based cities (RBCs) face challenges, including resource depletion, economic recession, environmental pollution, and ecological damage, to which not enough attention has been paid. In the context of China’s increased focus on environmental protection and the economy, improving industrial ecological efficiency of RBCs has become ever more important. In the present study, the Super-SBM model was used to measure the industrial ecological efficiency of 114 RBCs in China from 2003 to 2016. The results show that during the study period, the industrial ecological efficiency of RBCs in China improved significantly, particularly in the central and western regions. The results from a Tobit model show that appropriate environmental regulation and financial pressure have a positive impact on the industrial ecological efficiency of RBCs. However, when faced with the dual pressures of environmental regulation and financial difficulty, improvement in industrial ecological efficiency was inhibited. The impact of environmental regulation and financial pressure on industrial ecological efficiency of cities in different regions and development stages and with different resource types shows heterogeneity. In accordance with the study findings, differentiated measures and suggestions are proposed to improve the industrial ecological efficiency of RBCs.

Impact of the digital economy on carbon dioxide emissions in resource-based cities

“…These indices aid in understanding the developmental trends and challenges of cities from multiple angles. Furthermore, Tan et al 17 delved into the transformational performance of resource-based cities in Northeast China, while Hou et al 18 analyzed the impact of environmental regulation and financial pressure on industrial ecological efficiency, revealing the potential positive role of appropriate environmental policies in enhancing the ecological efficiency of resource-based cities. Collectively, these studies paint a detailed picture of the environmental challenges and opportunities for transformation faced by resource-based cities, highlighting their complexity in economic, social, and environmental aspects.…”

Does China’s poverty alleviation policy improve the quality of the ecological environment in poverty-stricken areas?

“…From the dimension of financial resources, the implementation of environmental policy in different places usually depends on central financial incentives and local financial capacity (Dunlop and Corbera, 2016;Qi and Zhang, 2014), and sufficient financial resources are an important guarantee for local governments to implement environmental governance (He et al, 2012;Tacconi et al, 2008), while when there is a large financial pressure, it changes local government behavior, making local governments pay more attention to economic growth and neglect the environment, and this incentive effect formed by financial pressure is This incentive effect formed by fiscal pressure is an important reason for the growth of industrial pollution in China (Hui et al, 2022). In contrast, the implementation of the poverty alleviation policy has led the state to increase the intensity of investment in poverty alleviation funds in counties (Luo et al, 2021), and the financial transfer payments shared at the central, provincial, counties, and county levels have reconciled the contradictions between the central and local governments in terms of financial resources (financial power) and environmental governance matters (affairs) (Gong et al, 2020), bringing an increase in the level of financial security of local governments (Su et al, 2021;Wen and Lee, 2020), which has helped to alleviate the financial pressure on local contributes to the improvement of urban productivity and resource use efficiency (Hou et al, 2022;Hui et al, 2022), significantly increases the willingness and motivation of local governments to protect the environment (Zhang and Zhao, 2018), and therefore this will help localities to improve the environmental quality situation. Accordingly, this paper proposes hypotheses two and three:…”

Trend Analysis of the Impact of Ecological Governance on Industrial Structural Upgrading under the Dual Carbon Target

“…Li et al [4] proposed an evaluation framework to study the comprehensive process of urban ecological governance. Hou et al [5] assessed the industrial ecological efficiency of resource-based cities by using the Super-SBM model and investigated the influence of environmental regulations and financial pressure on industrial ecological efficiency. Zhou et al [6] conducted an eco-efficiency study of 48 cities in the Bohai Sea region using data envelopment analysis, with a specific focus on the impact of industrial structural upgrading, which takes spatial heterogeneity.…”