Policy objective bias and institutional quality improvement: Sustainable development of resource-based cities. (September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Luo, Lianfa; Liu, Peiyao; Zhu, Fangjing; Sun, Yongping; Liu, Lingna
• Is Part Of: Resources policy. Volume 78(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Subjects: Resource-based city -- Institutional quality -- Policy objective bias -- Sustainable development; Mines and mineral resources -- Periodicals; Ressources minérales -- Périodiques; Ressources naturelles -- Gestion -- Périodiques; Environnement -- Politique gouvernementale -- Périodiques; 333.8
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.102932
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0301-4207

Abstract

Abstract: China has implemented many supportive policies to help the resource-based cities transit to sustainable development. However, these policies may induce unexpected results to institutional quality, which is an important factor to influence sustainable development. This paper examines how the policy affect the institutional quality of the resource-based cities, by building an institutional quality evaluation system which covering innovation environment, human resources, market environment and using Chinese "Sustainable Development Plan of Resource-based Cities (SDPRC)" as a quasi-experiment. The results show that the SDPRC has a significant negative effect on the overall level of institutional quality. Particularly, the policy implementation has significantly reduced the scores of institutional quality sub-items such as public service and human resources. Heterogenous analysis finds that the negative effect to institutional quality is significant in resource-depleted cities and coal cities. The policy implications of this paper are that government needs to emphasize the policy objective bias problem in the process of supporting resource-based cities and focus more on the institutional quality of resource-depleted cities and coal cities. Highlights: Implementation of Sustainable Development Plan of Resource-based Cities (SDPRC) results in objective bias. SDPRC has significant negative effect to institutional quality of resource-based cities. The negative effect mainly lies in public services and human resources. The negative effect is heterogeneous in resource dependency and type. Institutional quality should be considered in supportive policy of resource-based cities.