Research On The Impact Of The Opening Of High-speed Rail To China’s Resource-based Urban Economy’s Transition Development

Since the reform and opening up,China’s economic development has made remarkable achievements,but many resource-based cities formed by rich natural resource development have become "problem areas".Resource-based cities face problems such as reduced human capital and technological innovation,single industrial structure,deteriorating institutional environment,and slow economic growth.They are even considered to suffer from ―resource curses‖.Accelerating the economic transition development of resource-based cities is an inherent requirement for the new era to resolve the main contradiction of regional economic development imbalance.The 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also explicitly proposed "supporting the economic transition development of resource-based regions." At present,the formation of high-speed rail network is reshaping China’s economic geography,and the opening of high-speed rail provides a major opportunity for resource-based cities to integrate into national urban networks and promote economic transition development.Therefore,based on the perspective of high-speed rail opening,this paper studies its impact on the economic transition development of resource-based cities.This paper uses mechanism interpretation,metrological test,comparative analysis and other methods to analyze the impact of high-speed rail opening on the economy’s transition development of resource-based cities,and propose relevant policy recommendations.The key to realizing economic transition development of resource-based cities is to alleviate the "resource curse" that they generally face.So firstly,on the basis of introducing relevant concepts and theories,explain the formation mechanism of the "resource curse" and the mechanism on the impact of the opening of high-speed rail to China’s resource-based urban economy’s transition development.Then,analyze and test the phenomenon of ―resource curse‖ by using statistical data.Next,test the impact of the opening of high-speed rail to China’s resource-based urban economy’s transition development by the DID model.Finally,based on the theoretical and empirical analysis results,propose targeted countermeasures.The main conclusions and innovations of this paper are as follows:(1)Theoretical analysis shows that resource dependence leads to the extrusion of factors,―Dutch disease‖ and ―system weakening‖,which are the main reasons why resource-based cities encounter ―resource curse‖.The space-time compression effect of high-speed rail opening can optimize the accessibility of capital,labor,technology and other factors in resource-based cities,and thus bring positive and negative effects on the economic transition development.The positive effect: the elements,industries and advanced systems of the central city will spread to the resource-based cities,and the economic transformation of the resource-based cities will be promoted.The negative effect: the external central city is the growth pole,and the polarization effect causes the loss of the high-end elements of the resource-based cities,the simplification of the industrial structure and the weakening of the institutional environment,which is not conducive to the economic transition development of resource-based cities.(2)In the study of the ―resource curse‖ phenomenon of resource-based cities in China,it is found that compared with the whole country,the resource-based city has a low level of economic development,a high degree of resource dependence while a low level of manufacturing input.The degree of economic openness has been improved but still at a low level;compared with resource-based cities with low resource dependence,resource-dependent cities with high resource dependence have high economic development level,but lack of stamina,and the level of investment in manufacturing,human capital,technology research and development is lower.The empirical results of the "resource curse" study further show that resource dependence has a negative effect on the economic growth of resource-based cities,confirming the widespread "resource curse" in 115 resource-based cities in China,and testing the existence of three transmission mechanisms of ―resource curse‖: element extrusion effect,―Dutch disease‖ effect and institutional weakening effect.(3)Based on the development of high-speed rail in China’s cities,this paper uses DID model to study the impact of the opening of high-speed rail to resource-based urban economy’s transition development,and innovatively studies the impact at different stages from the perspective of time series through multi-period DID model.The empirical results show that when the time node is implemented in 2011,the opening of high-speed rail is unfavorable to the economic development of resource-based cities.And the higher resource dependency of resource-dependent cities,the more obvious the adverse effects of high-speed rail on it.Then,using the multi-period DID model to test the robustness of the empirical results,it is found that the results of the three DID models before 2011 are consistent with the regression results in 2011.After 2011,both 2012 and 2013 are basically consistent with it,but its significance has been reduced.The results in 2014 and 2015 are no longer significant.It shows that the high-speed rail opening has a negative effect on the economic development of resource-based cities,and it gradually weakens with the deduction of time until it is no longer obvious.The impact of the opening of the high-speed rail on the economic transition development of resource-based cities was mainly negative in the early stage,and then weakened.It is expected that it will gradually enter the next stage with positive diffusion effects.(4)Under the background of China’s high-speed railway entering the network development,resource-based cities must grasp the historical opportunities from a strategic height firstly,introduce relevant supporting policies,support the construction of high-speed rail,and actively integrate into the high-speed rail network.Then,with the help of high-speed rail "time-space compression effect",actively introduce various advanced production factors such as capital,technology and talents,and accelerate the transition of resource-based urban economic growth from resource-oriented to technology-oriented and knowledge-oriented.Secondly,relying on the high-speed rail " urbanization effect" to optimize the industrial layout,promote the upgrading of industrial structure,and alleviate the "Dutch disease." Finally,with the help of the high-speed rail "channel effect" to improve the business environment,improve the level of opening up,and promote the development of export-oriented economy.