Identification of Cities in Underdeveloped Resource-Rich Areas and Its Sustainable Development: Evidence from China

Abstract

Achieving sustainable development has become the consensus of the development of human society, but many of the cities in underdeveloped resource-rich areas (UDRRAs) are sacrificing natural resources and the environment for local economic growth, which hinders the regional sustainable development. This paper uses the Solow residual method to calculate the total factor resource efficiency (TFRE) of 114 resource-based cities to assess the extent to which these cities trade resources and environment for development and identifies 59 cities in UDRRAs. The results of the study are as follows: a. Cities in UDRRAs are mainly distributed in the central and western regions and in ecologically fragile areas. b. The contribution rate of the TFRE to the economic growth of cities in UDRRAs is only 19.30%, while the contribution rate of the factor input is as high as 80.70%, and there is a phenomenon of the “resource curse” at the urban level. c. The carbon dioxide input contributed the most to the economic growth of cities in UDRRAs, accounting for 52.26%. d. The problems faced by the different types of cities in UDRRAs are quite different, especially the declining cities in UDRRAs urgently need to formulate sustainable development paths. Finally, we put forward some reference opinions on the sustainable development path of cities in UDRRAs.