Table of Content

20 February 2025, Volume 27 Issue 1

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OVERVIEWS AND OUTLOOK FOR “RESOURCE CURSE” HYPOTHESIS

KANG Jing

2025, 27(1):  1-10.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241107.001

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At the initial stage of economic development, abundance of natural resources is normally regarded as a favorable factor for economic growth. However, not all economies can obtain sustainable development by their natural resources. Economies of areas with abundant resources have declined due to their resources, falling into a growth trap. This is so-called “resource curse” hypothesis. To clarify if natural resources are either a “curse” or a “drive” to economic growth, researchers have done lots of work on theories and practices. One prevailing viewpoint is that development of natural resources adversely affects economy through “squeezing” the core elements of economic growth. Some statistical models from different perspectives verify that abundance of natural resources trend to hinder economic growth, leading to issues such as worsening environment, simple industry and uneven distribution. It attracts lots of attentions to the relation among resources, environment and sustainable development. “Resource curse” hypothesis is becoming a research hotspot in development economics and regional economics. This paper overviews the “resource curse” hypothesis, analyzes the research advances from origin, evolution, connotation, theoretical explanation and cases, and finds out that natural resources impact economy not in a simply linear way, but in a non-linear way, which has been widely agreed by researchers. Explanations of controlling variables of “resources curse” are variable, but it is agreed that resource dependence is negative to economy, and the higher dependence, the more subject to “resource curse”. The future research should be focused on endogeneity of key variables, selecting appropriate tool variables, samples and methods to increase robustness of conclusion of “resource curse” hypothesis. This paper presents suggestions on exploring causes and mechanisms of “resource curse” in China and attempting new path to transformation in resource-based areas against “resource curse”

IMPACTS OF DIGITAL ECONOMY ON PROVINCIAL GREEN WATER RESOURCES USE EFFICIENCY BASED ON SYSTEM GMM MODEL TESTS

ZHANG Jie, ZHAO Xiangyang, PANG Qinghua, ZHANG Chenjun

2025, 27(1):  11-21.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241015.001

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To reveal the relationship between digital economy and green water resources use efficiency, this paper selects the panel data of China's 31 provinces (excluding Hongkong, Macao and Taiwan) from 2012 to 2022 to establish a non-expected output SBM-DEA model which is used to calculate their green water resources use efficiencies, and applies principal component analysis to measure their provincial digital economic levels, and employs GMM model to study their causality. Green water resources use efficiency is significantly positively impacted by digital economy, positively by economic level, financial concentration and marketing level, negatively by manufacturing level. Robustness test based on four methods, explanatory variables remeasurement, tail-shrinking treatment, removal of municipalities, and shortening sample years, suggests that the outstanding levels and polarity of coefficients of key explanatory variables remain unchanged, meaning a robust conclusion that digital economy promotes green water resources use efficiency. Regional heterogeneity test shows that the impacting effect of digital economy is more significant in eastern areas than in western and central areas. Mediating effect test reveals that structural level changes of three industries variably impact green water resources use efficiency, among which structural upgrading of the first and the second industries plays a mediating role in promoting green water resources use efficiency. This paper presents suggestions on securing industrial structural stabilities and applying differentiated digital economic strategies, on boosting infrastructural construction of digital economy and intensifying talents education, and on increasing R&D inputs and applying comprehensive measures to upgrade digital economy. This conclusion is of significance for driving digital economic development, raising green water resources use efficiency and promoting China's high-quality economy.

DIGITAL ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURAL UPGRADING: THEORETICAL LOGIC AND EMPIRICAL TEST

Maynur, MA Jiyue

2025, 27(1):  22-34.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241210.001

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Digital economy has become a significant engine for new quality productivity, and also a major drive for China-style modernization. It empowers China's industrial structural upgrading through its talents'attracting effect and digital outflowing effect. This paper uses 2010 to 2021 panel data of China's 31 provinces (municipalities and prefectures) to establish a dual-directional fixed effect model and mediating model, which are employed to empirically test the impacting mechanism of digital economy on industrial structural upgrading, providing theoretical references for digital economy to empower coordinated development of regional economy. Digital economy positively drives industrial structural upgrading, validated through endogeneity processing and robustness test, outstandingly for efficiency of industrial structure upgrading. Digital economy promotes industrial structural upgrading mainly through developing human capital potential and raising technical innovative efficiency. Technical innovation has heterogeneity in its effects, but all showing a positive promotion in three industries above specific technical threshold. Regional heterogeneity test indicates the impact of digital economy on industrial structural upgrading is outstanding in eastern area, but weak in central and western areas. Digital economy is not only the key drive to industrial structural upgrading, but also a critical factor to coordinated development of regional economy. This paper presents suggestions on cultivating human capital, inputting technical innovation to improve productivity and promoting the deep integration of digital economy and real economy during high-quality digital economic construction.

IMPACTS AND PATHWAYS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ON GREEN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

LI Xiaofei, ZHUANG Shiying

2025, 27(1):  35-49.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241113.001

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 Digital economy and green economy are two main directions leading China's economy to structural transformation, and also major drives to China's high-quality economy and sustainable development. Digitalization helps green economy a lot, but its accompanying energy consumption and carbon emission are still issues. This paper, based on panel data of China's 30 provinces, municipalities and prefectures from 2012 to 2022, measures their digitalization and green economic development levels, and reveals the mechanism and factors of digitalization level on green economic development. Digital economy shows a non-linear U-shaped relationship with green economic development, negatively affecting green economic development at the initial stage but positively in later stages, which has been validated through robustness test. The U-shaped relationship is remarkable in northern China, but not in the south. During the development of digital economy, reduced carbon emission intensity, optimized electricity consuming structure, and increased residents' income indirectly play a positive role to green economy. Environmental regulations and green technical innovation play a significant adjusting role in the U-shaped relationship. This paper presents suggestions on boosting governmental supports for green digital infrastructural construction, encouraging firms to develop green and power-saving technologies, and planning to integrate digital economy into green economy, widely applying smart grid and energy management system to increase energy use efficiency, intensifying carbon emission supervision to reach mutual benefits in economy and environment, developing digital economy to create high-quality employment, increasing residents' income to promote green consumption, stimulating green technical innovation and application, and implementing environmental laws and regulations to drive green economy

IMPACTS OF GREEN FINANCING ON CARBON EMISSION LEVELS BASED ON DUAL PERSPECTIVES OF QUANTITY AND QUALITY

LIANG Yuan, ZHOU Juanmei, WU Yunxia

2025, 27(1):  50-62.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241115.001

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 To reach the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality needs to diversify policies and management, during which green financing as a product closely connected to low carbon economy plays an irreplaceable role. It is necessary to reveal how green financing impacts gross carbon emission and carbon emission intensity, and how to realize the dual control target of carbon emission quantity and quality. This paper, based on panel data of China's 30 provinces from 2009 to 2021, uses entropy to measure green financing, and establishes a multiple regression model to estimate the impacts of green financing on carbon emission from perspectives of theory and cases. Industrial structural upgrading and marketization level are selected as mediating variable and moderating variable to construct a mediating effect model and a moderating effect model to test the mechanism of green financing impacting gross carbon emission and intensity. Results show a strong negative relation between green financing and gross carbon emission and intensity, which is confirmed by robustness tests of lagging explanatory variables, changing sample volumes, replacing explained variables and changing time zones. Industrial structural upgrading plays a mediating role during green financing impacting carbon emission and intensity. Green financing pushes industrial structural upgrading, and further helps reduce carbon emission and increase carbon efficiency. Marketization level positively adjusts the relation between green financing and carbon emission. The higher marketization level, the stronger negatively impacting of green financing on gross carbon emission and intensity. Green financing's synergism of reducing emission and increasing efficiency plays a more important role in central-western, resources-based provinces, and government highly-intervened areas compared to eastern, non-resources-based provinces, and government lowly-intervened areas. This paper presents suggestions on optimizing green financing system, fulfilling low-carbon transformation of industrial structures, intensifying regional exchange, persisting in governmental administration and marketing, further boosting green financing to realize sustainable development.

SUPPLY-DEMAND FORECAST AND SUPPLY-SECURING MEASURES OF CLEAN ENERGY MINERAL PROCESSING PRODUCTS BASED ON A CASE STUDY ON LITHIUM, COBALT AND NICKEL

YI Xinghua, WANG Xiaoxiao, CHENG Jinhua, HU Songqin

2025, 27(1):  63-76.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241204.001

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Forecasting supply/demand of clean energy critical mineral processing products and exploring the effective ways to raise supply-securing level of critical mineral processing products are of significance to guarantee and stabilize industrial chain and supply chain of critical minerals in China. This paper, aiming at the clean energy critical mineral processing products of lithium, cobalt and nickel, applies grey forecasting model, ARIMA model and a combined model based on entropy to forecast China's market supply/demand trend of clean energy critical mineral processing products from 2023 to 2030. Entropy-based combined model works excellently in market supply/demand of lithium, cobalt and nickel with dramatically improved forecasting precision compared to single model. In consideration of recycling resource contribution, it is forecasted that the demand for lithium and cobalt processing products will reach 153.74×10.4 t and 25.34×10.4 t in 2030, and the supply will be 183.56×10.4 t and 23.36×10.4 t, basically reaching a supply/demand balance, but with potential disturbance from technical innovation. As for nickel processing products, without considering the recycling resource, there will be a conflicted demand/supply, suggesting China should take immediate actions to secure domestic nickel processing products supply to guarantee sustainable development. Suggestions are presented for the three critical minerals. For lithium, China should prioritize research and application of deep brine lithium extraction technologies, promote the “oil-lithium co-exploration” model, and intensify technical innovation to reduce reliance on imports and mitigate market volatility risks. As for cobalt resource, recycling economy is the key way by intensifying cobalt recycling research and application and by increasing overall use efficiency to relieve mining pressure. As for nickel resource, it suggests China cooperate with “the Belt and Road” countries in overseas investment and production by diversifying importing sources, and boost domestic nickel exploration and development to ensure stability and security of nickel supply chain

MECHANISM AND EFFECT OF FIRMS' ENVIRONMENTAL HARNESS ON GREEN INVESTORS FROM PERSPECTIVE OF INVESTORS' DECISION MAKING

XIAO Jianzhong, LI Weiwei, WEN Yang

2025, 27(1):  77-91.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241209.001

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 Issuing green financing policies and enlarging green investing market attract lots of green investors accompanying with “greenwashing”. This paper, aiming at how firm's environmental harness attracts green investors, analyzes if the green investors are really “green” from perspective of investors' decision-making, uses stock-listed firms data from 2008 to 2020 to establish a Logit regression model to test the impacts of firms' environmental harness input on green investors, and selects non-expected earnings and over-expected returns as mediating variables to establish a mediating effect model, which is employed to study mechanism of firms' environmental harness on green investors by means of binary classification mediating effect. Firms that actually conduct environmental harness probably attract green investors. Category variable mediating effect model indicates that firms' environmental harness casts an attracting effect through short-term trading gains rather than long-term harness mechanism. It reveals that green investors tend to be more speculative and invest primarily for the short-term gains. Pollution industry and private firms can attract green investors through outstanding short-term gains from environmental harness, suggesting green investors are more sensitive to pollution industry and private firms while chasing short-term gains. Participation of green investors will increase firms' market share, especially for firms with larger market share, suggesting investors' decision preference intensifies firms' monopolizing power with higher market share, thus hindering green development. Green investors shall aim at both economic and social benefits to have a long-term investing will. Local governments shall avoid “selecting best” strategy when issuing allowance policies, support small and medium-sized firms in environmental harness to reach a win-win during green production. This paper offers new empirical evidences in disclosing green investors' “greenwashing” behavior, and helps to improve China's green financing system and guide the investment concept of capital market

EVOLUTIONARY GAMBLING STUDY ON LOW-CARBON TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION FOR INDUSTRIAL GAS PRODUCERS

LU Qing, FANG Huaxin, HOU Jianchao

2025, 27(1):  92-106.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241014.001

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Industrial gas as an important industrial material with a rising demand consumes a large quantity of energy during its production, which requires a low-carbon transformation of industrial gas producers for green development. Due to the limitation of transformation costs, governmental allowance is adopted. With distributed photovoltaic power generation as the transforming direction, considering the transforming conditions such as environmental benefits, utility cost and geographic location, this paper uses evolutionary gambling theory to establish a gambling model between governments and firms, which is employed to analyze their rule in making decisions and to explore the evolutionary path to low carbon transformation under governmental allowance, and applies Python to analyze the impacts of firms' comprehensive conditions on their low carbon transformation with purpose of offering references for energy consumption low carbon transformation and industrial green development. There are six scenarios of evolutionary equilibrium in the gambling between governments and firms, which can be divided into three stages. Evolutionary state depends on governmental allowance, firms' transforming costs and comprehensive conditions. Governmental allowance determines if firms have capabilities to transform, and environmental benefits determine the final evolutionary path. Firms are facing pressures of transformation costs and target scale planning; the former is negative to its comprehensive conditions while the latter is positive. Whether firms with poor comprehensive conditions can realize their transformation lies in reducing transforming costs pressure. Governmental allowance shall be used to reduce firms' transforming costs such as equipment cost, transportation costs, maintenance costs, and plant construction costs. For firms with better comprehensive conditions, success of their transformation depends on reducing their target scale planning pressure, and governmental allowance should be focused on planning and optimization of renewable energy application sites and plants remodeling to maximize their target scales

IMPACTS OF HIGH-QUALITY HUMAN CAPITAL ON OPTIMIZATION OF DIGITAL INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE

ZHANG Ning, MIAO Pu, DING Chenhui

2025, 27(1):  107-119.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241030.001

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This paper, based on the panel data of some provinces in China from 2008 to 2020, establishes a panel model and mediating effect model, and fabricates such indices as digital industrial structural advancement index, digital industrial structural rationalization index, high-quality human capital index, and technical & institutional innovation index to analyze the impacting mechanism of high-quality human capital on optimization of digital industrial structure. High-quality human capital can increase productivity, improve element use efficiency, fulfill remuneration incremental effect, match human capital structure with digital industrial employment structure, and finally promotes an optimization of digital industrial structure. Both technical innovation and institutional innovation can drive optimization of digital industrial structure. As for industrial structural advancement, the mediating effect of institutional innovation is 16 times that of technical innovation, and 10 times for industrial structural rationalization. Variance of population fluidity and high educational level can explain the heterogeneous impacts of human capital on digital industrial structure in different areas. The estimated coefficients for the impact of high-quality human capital on digital industrial structural advancement are significant，which in areas with  a net population inflow are 2 times of areas with a net population outflow, and which in areas of starting type are 2 times of areas of outstanding type. Positive impact of high-quality human capital on digital industrial structural rationalization is outstanding only in areas with a net population outflow. Mediating effect of institutional innovation on digital industrial structural advancement is 5 to 13 times of technical innovation, 7 to 9 times on digital industrial structural rationalization. This paper puts forward suggestions on raising quality of digital industrial staff, fulfilling promotion of high-quality talents on technical innovation, stimulating inner driving forces of high-quality talents participating institutional innovation, coordinating the relation between technical innovation and institutional innovation, and making differentiated policies for high-quality talents.

HARMONIOUS SYMBIOSIS EVOLUTION BETWEEN HUMAN AND NATURE IN THE UPPER-STREAM OF YELLOW RIVER IMPACTED BY ECOLOGICAL TOURISM

HAN Zixuan, CHEN Jinlin

2025, 27(1):  120-131.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241120.001

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 Based on the relation among ecological tourism, human activities and natural environment, this paper establishes a theoretical model of human and nature impacted by ecological tourism, constructs an evaluation index system of human and nature harmonious development， uses coupling coordination model to measure the harmonious symbiosis between human and nature impacted by ecological tourism in 17 cities of the upper-stream of Yellow River, and compares their temporal and spatial variances, aiming at providing references for ecological tourism high-quality development and harmonious symbiosis between human and nature in the upper-stream of Yellow River. From 2008 to 2022, economic-social evaluation index of cities in the upper-stream of Yellow River has been continuously rising, so does resources-environmental evaluation index but with fluctuations amid growing process. In the recent 15 years, protection of resources environment surpassed economic-social development before 2013, lagged after 2013, but both in a generally rising trend. Harmonious development of human and nature in the cities of the upper-stream of Yellow River can be divided into 3 periods, entirely disordered period from 2008 to 2011, developing period from 2012 to 2017, and initial coordinated period from 2018 to 2022. During the study period their coupling coordination shows a rising trend, generally low, only up to initial coordinated stage. Geographically their coupling coordination displays a pattern of “high in the southwest but low in the northeast”.

IMPACTS OF DIGITAL GOVERNMENT ON INDUSTRIAL TECHNICAL INNOVATION UNDER DIGITAL ECONOMY

GUO Mengran, ZHOU Qian, DENG Kai

2025, 27(1):  132-145.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20241129.001

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Digital governmental construction is a fundamental and leading project for constructing network power and digital China, supporting industrial high-quality development. This paper, based on panel data of China's 30 provinces from 2011 to 2021, establishes a mediating effect model to test the impacts of digital government on industrial technical innovation, and to study the mediating effects in raising governmental efficiency, optimizing fiscal distribution and reducing administrative corruption. Digital governmental construction largely promotes industrial technical innovation, validated by robustness tests through replacing explained and explanatory variables, and using tool variables to process endogeneity. Digital government can improve industrial technical innovation through three ways, raising administrative efficiency, optimizing fiscal capital distribution and reducing administrative corruption with the mediating effect coefficients of 0.312 7, 0.215 7 and －0.088 2, further confirmed by Sobel test and bootstrap test. Promotion of governmental digitalizing transformation on industrial technical innovation has been marked in eastern, central and western China, more significantly in eastern China, in provinces with higher technical levels and in provinces with appropriate governmental size. China should accelerate governmental digitalizing transformation to empower industrial upgrading and technical innovation, leverage the advantages of digital governance to form a positive interaction with enterprises, and provide support for the rational allocation of social resources to promote the overall innovation. Governmental digitalizing transformation will probably become a guarantee to China's industrial technical innovation and economic growth and provides theoretical and practical references for high-quality industrial economy in the digital era. 

IMPACTING MECHANISM OF CLIMATIC CHANGE RISKS ON FIRM'S SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCES

TIAN Ming, SHEN Shaoqi, YAN Jiarui

2025, 27(1):  146-162.  DOI: 10.13776/j.cnki.resourcesindustries.20240914.001

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This paper, based on data of China's A-listed 2 594 companies from 2010 to 2022, uses natural resources dependence theory to study the impacting effects and mechanism of climatic change risks on firm's sustainability performance aiming at providing theoretical basis for companies to boost their adaptability to climatic changes and at offering references on green transformation and sustainable development. Climatic change risks dramatically enhance firm's sustainability performance, boost their transformation to adapt to changing climates and stimulate them to undertake social responsibilities to sustainability. Green innovation plays a mediating role between climatic change risks and sustainability performance. Climatic change risks drive firms to deploy green innovation to reduce dependence on single resource, decrease natural resource consumption and ecosystem damage, boost firm's adaptability and emergency responding capabilities to climatic changes, and cultivate their diversified core competitiveness. Redundant resources amplify the positive impact of climate change risks on sustainability performance, providing a buffering mechanism for enterprises to cope with climate challenges. This not only reduces losses from climatic disasters but also ensures resource availability to enterprise development and transformation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that climate change risks have a more pronounced effect on promoting the sustainability performance of high-carbon emission enterprises and heavily polluting enterprises. Moreover, the influence of climate change risks on sustainability performance varies depending on the specific property rights and industrial characteristics of the enterprises. Specifically, state-owned enterprises, compared to non-state-owned ones, possess greater resources and capabilities to respond to climate change risks, making them more likely to achieve the goal of harmonizing economic development and environmental protection. Regarding industry nature, labor-intensive enterprises, due to their higher dependence on human resources, are more sensitive to climate change risks and consequently place greater emphasis on sustainability practices compared to technology-intensive and asset-intensive enterprises.