Efficiency of urban land use in China’s resource-based cities, 2000–2018

Through an examination of output efficiency of urban land use and its driving mechanisms, this paper aims to highlight the roles of inherent differences in development cycle and resource endowment and the need for a targeted revitalization policy in resource-based cities in China. Based on the Slack-Based Model-Undesirable through the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Tobit model on panel data at the municipal level between 2000 and 2018, our analytical framework addresses the methodological concern of existing studies on the estimate of urban land use efficiency (ULUE) and its possible determining factors for 115 resource-based cities in China. Examination through the Tobit model suggests that it is more effective for the local governments of resource-based cities to improve their ULUE by investing in road networks and science and technology. The organic growth of urban land leads to rapid urbanization but is not necessarily conducive to the improvement of ULUE. Importantly, the stages of the development cycle and the geographical specificities of particular cities in terms of natural resource endowments and socio-economic structure is important to the level of ULUE of resource-based cities. Coal-based cities, and to a lesser extent, ferrous metal-based cities, are normally lower-tiered cities and have the highest level of dependency on the exploitation of natural resources, therefore, the government should not underestimate the difficulties to revitalize the economies of such resource-based cities.