The Effect of Industrial Structure Upgrading and Human Capital Structure Upgrading on Green Development Efficiency—Based on China’s Resource-Based Cities

Wanfang Shen, Yufei Liu, Xiaowen Liu, Jianing Shi, Wenbin Liu and Chengye Liu ()
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Wanfang Shen: Shandong Key Laboratory of Blockchain Finance, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Yufei Liu: School of Mathematics and Quantitative Economics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250002, China
Xiaowen Liu: Credit Card Center of China Minsheng Banking Corporation Limited, Beijing 100071, China
Jianing Shi: School of Mathematics and Quantitative Economics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250002, China
Wenbin Liu: Division of Business and Management, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai 519087, China
Chengye Liu: Institute of Automation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250014, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-26

Abstract: Green development is crucial to global natural resource conservation, environmental improvement and sustainable development. Furthermore, resource-based cities’ green development is more challenging compared with that of other types of cities. On such basis, it is a necessity to understand the green development level of such cities. Therefore, we introduce green development efficiency (GDE), which is a key indicator for measuring green development. This paper takes China’s 112 resource-based cities during 2010–2019 as its research object, and examines their GDE using the Super-SBM-Undesirable model. Moreover, industrial structure upgrading (ISU) and human capital structure upgrading (HCSU) have important implications for green development. To further explore the influence of ISU and HCSU on GDE, this paper employs a fixed effect model, an interaction effect model and a threshold model. Finally, considering the differences between different resource-based cities, the heterogeneity of ISU and HSCU on GDE in four types of China’s resource-based cities is also explored. It is found that (1) although GDE is on the track of steady improvement, the overall GDE was still relatively low during 2010–2019, with an average GDE of about 0.8; (2) ISU, HCSU and their interaction can promote GDE in resource-based cities and with the intensity of industrial structure increasing, the interaction effect of ISU and HSCU on GDE in resource-based cities shifts from positive to negative; (3) there exists heterogeneity in the direct effect and interaction effect of ISU and HCSU among four types of resource-based cities (i.e., mature cities, growing cities, declining cities and regenerating cities). Our findings offer a data reference for the green and sustainable development of China’s resource-based cities, and also a method reference for other countries’ resource-based cities.

Keywords: green development efficiency (GDE); Super-SBM-Undesirable model; human capital structure upgrading (HCSU); industrial structure upgrading (ISU); resource-based cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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