Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164

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Energy Policy
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol

Experience in the transformation process of “coal city” to “beautiful city”:

Taking Jiaozuo City as an example
Yanqi Zhao a, b, *, Ying Yang a, Sobkowiak Leszek b, Xinyi Wang a
a
Institute of Resources & Environment, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, China
b
Institute of Physical Geography and Environmental Planning, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, 61-680, Poland

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Transformation to sustainability is a worldwide problem to the resource-based cities whose development de­
Resource-based cities pends primarily on the exploitation and primary processing of natural resources. Jiaozuo is a typical coal city
Jiaozuo city with a meandering and intriguing development course and a successful transformation example in China. This
Urban transformation
paper summarizes the experiences and lessons in the growth course of Jiaozuo through calculating the econo­
Resource curse
Econometric model
metric model based on “resource curse” theory and exploring the development process from a historical
perspective. It reveals that: Jiaozuo suffers from a certain “resource curse”, especially the “Dutch disease” and
“crowding out” effect (the over-reliance on the energy industry leads to the squeezing for science or technology,
manufacturing and corruption). The reasons from the rise of Jiaozuo to the successful transformation are the
synthesis of resources endowment (high-quality coal and advantageous tourism resources), financial support and
technology introduction, seizing transition chance, location advantage, reconstruction of the city image and
extensive propaganda. From a long-term perspective, Jiaozuo should take full advantage of the industrial leg­
acies and historical remains expand industry layout and recycling economy. These experiences may provide some
references for the sustainable development of other cities and serve as a practical basis for breaking through
paths for resources-based cities.

1. Introduction confronted with the transformation issues in the post-industrial era.

The rise and fall of a city is a comprehensive result of the develop­
ment of many regional factors over time, such as variation of resource
reserves, social evolution, economic transformation, and transportation
reform (Han et al., 2008). At different phases of development and pro­
ductivity levels, the number, size, status and function of cities are
changing, especially the resource and industrial towns due to the
different needs of the society for mineral resources and energy. Since the
industrial revolution, the urban population has grown substantially and
the economy has developed rapidly, the demand for energy such as coal,
oil and electricity has increased day by day. From the functional
perspective, a large number of industrial and mining cities have
dramatically sprung up as a result of the discovery of large amounts of
local energy and mineral resources. However, with the gradual deple­
tion of natural resources, the development of these cities is commonly
facing an enormous challenge.
European was once cradles of industrialization and centers of wealth
creation (Harfst, 2015), but many “old industrialized” regions are also
Many economists and experts on social issues have carried out a lot of
research works on the transformation of resource-based cities from
different perspectives with some successful cases of having already
achieved sustainable development, such as Pittsburgh and the Ruhr.
Waddington and Parry (2003), Lintz et al. (2007) and Alves Dias et al.
(2018) investigated the social impact of industrial slowdown on mining
communities in European Union producing coal. They focused on the
potentially negative effects of employment insecurity and even job loss
on the former miners and their families in EU with reference to the in­
fluence of recent regeneration policies. Such comparisons emphasize the
need for coherent and integrated policies with sustained long-term
financial support. In Central and Eastern European countries the
socio-economic consequences of the reductions in coal mining capacity
were investigated in the context of the political transformation and
subsequent restructuring of the economy. Stryjakiewicz et al. (2012),
Spórna et al. (2016) and Runge et al. (2018) analyzed the process of
urban shrinkage on the example of the old mining city of Walbrzych and
Katowice in Poland, typically traditional industrial regions in Central

* Corresponding author. Institute of Resources & Environment, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, China.
E-mail address: zhaoyq@hpu.edu.cn (Y. Zhao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112164
Received 22 December 2019; Received in revised form 12 January 2021; Accepted 13 January 2021
Available online 25 January 2021
0301-4215/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Zhao et al.
and Eastern Europe. The process of urban shrinkage and its effects, as a
consequence of the restructuring of the regional economy since 1989,
were shown up from a broad perspective. Around the reconstruction of
the former coal mining region of Katowice in the context of the urban
sustainability, Sobala-Gwosdz and Gwosdz (2017) and Krzysztofik et al.
(2019) have studied different paths of the socio-economic trans­
formation of the post-industrial towns of Katowice, such as regenerating
post-mining towns through the realization of cultural projects financed
principally from public funds with significant support from the EU
budget, following a line of development based on high-tech industry and
industry 4.0. For the rest of the world, Marais et al. (2018) compared
policy responses to some mining towns in Australia, Canada and South
Africa, and found that mining towns have evolved over time through a
complex overlay of processes that are embedded in globalization,
corporate decisions, shifting political-economic ideologies and evolving
concepts of state welfare, citizen rights and responses from mineworkers
and communities. Hartt (2018) explored the co-evolution of de­
mographic, migratory, economic and built environment processes in
two shrinking municipalities of Canada. By embedding the study’s
exploratory quantitative findings within the historically dynamic
context and applying cross-correlation analysis to a large number of
shrinking cities, the stronger statistical evidence could provide impor­
tant insight regarding the evolution of urban and then help
decision-makers to develop more targeted and knowledgeable policy
and increase the efficacy of long-term community planning.
There are 262 resource-based cities (Li et al., 2015; He et al., 2017) in
China (accounting for nearly half of the entire country’s cities) (Fig. 1).
Especially after the reform and opening up in late period of 1978, many
emerging resource-based cities have arisen according to the needs of
national construction. Such cities have played a crucial role (He et al.,
2017) and made momentous contributions to the China’s economic and
social development in the past decades (Li et al., 2013; Cobbinah and
Fig. 1. Distribution map of resources-based cities in China. (Data source: Guofa [2013] No.45 issued by the China State Council and Li et al., 2013; He et al., 2017).
2
Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164
Amoako, 2018). But in fact, the development of resource-based cities
chiefly relies on the exploitation of natural resources and
resource-related industries are their predominant parts of the economic
systems (Li et al., 2013). So, this kind of single economic structure
usually causes economic slowdown, urban shrinkage and social crisis
with the exhaustion of resources and the deterioration of the environ­
ment. In China, resource-typed cities’ recession occurred in the 1980s
and became severe problem in the early 2000s (Li et al., 2013; Tan et al.,
2016). It has become a bottleneck troubling the governments and urban
planners in the transformation process of resource-based cities by the
multiple problems including resource depletion, economic downturn,
unbalanced industrial structure, weak extensible or replaceable in­
dustry, population loss, unemployment and poverty, social instability,
increasing numbers of vacant and deserted buildings, environmental
pollution, land degradation and subsidence, etc (He et al., 2017).
Relevant government departments have also played an important and
irreplaceable role in facilitating the transformation of old industrial and
mining cities through some policy guidance. So far, China’s central and
local governments have carried out a series of policies to help the
transformation of resource-based cities, such as the policy of Revital­
izing Northeast China (Tan et al., 2016; Hu and Yang, 2018), National
Plan for Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities
(2013–2020). But there are various questions in the concrete executive
process, such as corruption, misappropriation of special funds, uneven
distribution and vicious competition among regions, and focusing on
asking for money without proper planning, etc.
Linfen, one of the 262 resource-based cities in China has also expe­
rienced remarkable economic growth largely based on mining and
processing and serious environmental degradation. Kuai et al. (2015)
developed a system dynamics model for evaluating different planning
alternatives concerning three prominent factors: industrial scale, struc­
ture, and efficiency to assist decision-makers with a wider perspective in
Y. Zhao et al.
retrofitting the industrial system aimed at the green industrial trans­
formation. Dong et al. (2013) tests for the transformation performance
of 21 resource cities in China through using the environmental pro­
duction technology and a Malmquist resource performance index. By
using an urban metabolism model combined with qualitative social
research and policy analysis, L. Li et al., 2016 verifies Jinchang City
(north-western China) how the transition toward urban sustainability.
They believe it requires good governance, policy and planning, as well as
the participation of local enterprises and residents. Chen et al. (2018)
establishes a comprehensive index system from three aspects: economic
adjustment, social progress and environmental improvement to evaluate
the level of transformation and upgrading of six resource-based cities in
Shaanxi province.
In general, abundant resources in a region are of great benefit to its
development, but in the mid-1980s, western scholars who studied the
differences in economic development between different countries found
the opposite results (Zheng and Luo, 2013). That is, the economic
growth rate of countries or regions with abundant resources (especially
mineral and energy resources) is much lower than resource-poor coun­
tries or regions (Zheng and Luo, 2013). Auty and Warhurst (1993) first
defined this phenomenon as “Resource Curse”. Subsequently, re­
searchers carried out a lot of work around this hypothesis mainly in two
aspects: some literatures have focused on verifying the hypothesis, while
others have attempted to examine how natural resource wealth affects
economic growth and the mechanism of the “curse” (Havranek et al.,
2016; N. Zuo and H. Zhong, 2020). At present, there are two opposite
views on the “resource curse” theory. Wang et al. (2019), Cheng et al.
(2020), Xie and Zhai (2020) confirmed the existence of “resource curse”
hypothesis through using the spatial regression method to measure the
relationship between economic growth and natural resources based on
the statistical data of 30 provinces in China. Qian et al. (2019) found that
there is a “resource curse” effect in China’s coal-mining cities. By
incorporating environmental regulation, resource curse and economic
growth into one novel research framework for 30 typical coal-mining
cities in China, they found that all coal-mining cities have “resource
curse” effect in the first period (2005–2010); nevertheless it is no longer
significant in the second period (2011–2015), especially in cities with a
high economic development level. Xu et al. (2016), Yang and Song
(2019), N. Zuo and H. Zhong (2020) believe that it is related to several
important variables including regional location, economy policy, envi­
ronment and resources regulation policy to whether the “resource curse”
exists in China; and they deem that the resource policy can reverse the
“resource curse”. Shao and Yang (2014), Lashitew and Werker (2020)
think it is co-existence between the “resource curse” and the “resource
blessing”, and there are appropriate conditions for the establishment of
the “resource curse” hypothesis (Cheng et al., 2020). While Atil et al.,
2020 reveals that the natural resources are blessing for financial
development by considering oil prices, economic growth and global­
ization in Pakistan.
In summary, research on the transformation of resource-based cities
can be divided into three categories: a. Evaluation of urban develop­
ment; b. Study on factors affecting urban transformation; c. Exploration
of urban transformation paths (Yan et al., 2019). However, most of these
studies focus on two aspects: on the one hand, they discuss and analyze
some factors that appear in the process of urban transformation; on the
other hand, they evaluate the performance of urban transformation
through applying certain model. All of these provide a good theoretical
support for this research but lack systematic research on the develop­
ment process of a city. Therefore, we try to analyze the whole process of
Jiaozuo’s urban development, and summarize the successful experi­
ences and lessons in the course of transformation to provide some sci­
entific guidance for the government policy makers and planners.
Through combing the literatures on urban transformation, we note
that many researchers have made fruitful contributions with respect to
the development of resource-based cities. These research results serve as
good reference material and enlightenment for us but there are still some
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Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164
areas that need further in-depth study. First, as far as the research object
is concerned, most of the available literature mainly focus on the
development of large and medium-sized major cities, but ignores the
small-sized or prefectural cities located in the “cracks” of urban clusters.
Second, for the method, many existing empirical studies only consider
the analysis of a few elements or the rating of the city’s development
status, instead of comprehensively analyzing and evaluating multiple
elements from the whole process of a city’s development. Third, with
regard to the types of resources on which the development of resource-
based cities depends, most studies take the changes of a certain fixed
resource reserves in a certain region as the research object. In fact, as the
evolution of cities, some major elements of urban development will
change accordingly and different historical stages may rely on different
industries. Therefore, in order to accurately analyze the experiences and
lessons of Jiaozuo City in the process of development and trans­
formation, this paper conducts research from the whole process analysis
and the econometric model of urban development. The main theoretical
contribution of this paper is to improve the traditional theoretical
research and contribute as follows: Firstly, reviewing the entire history
of urban development, combined with the factor analysis of varying
industry development indicators, we summarized the experiences and
lessons of Jiaozuo City in the urban transformation process. Secondly,
using the theory of “resource curse” to construct an econometric model
based on regression analysis to evaluate the situation of Jiaozuo City
affected by “resource curse” in different periods, we analyzed the in­
fluence mechanism of resources in the development process of Jiaozuo
City on various development factors, and verified the conclusions
summarized in the previous historical analysis part.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly reviews
the general information and history of Jiaozuo City; in this section, we
have introduced the development process of Jiaozuo City in three stages.
The next section (Section 3) is used for the empirical framework,
methodology and data collection, including the validation of “resource
curse” hypothesis and the econometric model. Forth section discusses
the results, and the last section of this paper explains the conclusions
drawn from this study and recommendations for policy formation.
2. Historical review of Jiaozuo City development
Jiaozuo (113◦ 4′ - 113◦ 26′ E, 35◦ 10′ - 35◦ 21′ N) is a prefecture-level city
located in the northwest of Henan province, China (Fig. 2). It stands at
the southern foot of TaiHang Mountain and on the north bank of the
Yellow River, and Jiaozuo is bounded on the south by the provincial
capital Zhengzhou, on the east by Xinxiang, on the west by Jiyuan, on
the southwest by Luoyang, and on the north by Shanxi Province. Jiaozuo
is one of the core cities of the Central Plains urban agglomeration and a
regional central city in the Jin-Yu border area (Chen, 2005). The city has
a resident population of 3.59 million at the end of 2018 and covers an
area of 4071 km2 (JSB, 2018) (32.5 km long from east to west and 19.7
km wide from south to north). Its total GDP in 2018 was 237.15 billion
Yuan; the per capita GDP reached 66,328Yuan. The three industrial
structures are 5.69: 56.58: 37.73 (JSB, 2018). Jiaozuo City is a
temperate monsoon climate with abundant sunshine; winters are cool
and relatively dry while summers are hot and often rainy. Average
temperature ranges from 0.3 ◦ C in January to 27.5 ◦ C in July. Precipi­
tation averages 659 mm (JSB, 2018).
Jiaozuo Coal Mine is an important anthracite production base in
China and the earliest modernized coal mine in Henan province. Up to
now, Jiaozuo City has experienced more than 120 years and it has also
went through almost all important historical nodes in modern China
with the rise and fall of coal resources and the adjustment of urban
functional structure.
2.1. The early history before 1939 and the rise of Jiaozuo City
Jiaozuo was one of the central areas of human activity in early China.
Y. Zhao et al.
Fig. 2. Location of jiaozuo city.
As a major town in the northwest of Henan Province, it started in the late
Qing Dynasty and belonged to HuaiQing prefecture in Henan province,
nevertheless, the city flourished in the early years of the Republic of
China.
The coal was first discovered in Jiaozuo in the Warring States period,
and hand-workshop mining began in the Sui-Tang Dynasties (Han et al.,
2008). In 1896, the Italian Rosa discovered that Jiaozuo is rich in high
quality anthracite. Due to the affluent mineral resources in Jiaozuo and
China’s social surroundings at that time, the United Kingdom estab­
lished a professional multinational company in 1897 with the aim of
realizing the occupation and exploitation of Chinese mineral resources.
At the beginning of 1898, YingFu company forces the Qing government
to agree to the mining rights of “HuaiQing (now Jiaozuo City) and
various mines in the north of the Yellow River” using diplomatic means
and power (Han et al., 2008). Since that year, YingFu Company has
carried out mechanized coal mine construction and coal mining in
Jiaozuo for more than 40 years (Han et al., 2008). Then, they built the
DaoQing railway from DaoKou Town, XunXian to QingHua town (now
BoAi County) in order to sell the plundered Chinese coal resources
overseas by rail and shipping.
Before 1898, Jiaozuo was still a remote and desolate natural village.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the British company’s acquisition of coal
mining and railway construction rights in northern Henan province
became a direct opportunity for Jiaozuo to be born in the city (Ma,
2011). Since then, modern urban elements such as commerce, industry,
finance, postal services, telecommunications, hospitals and educational
institution in the north of Henan province have emerged around the
three major industries of coal, machinery and electricity. At the same
time, the opening of the DaoQing railway has greatly intensified the
development of Jiaozuo’s economic and trade exchanges with the
outside world. The number of people living in Jiaozuo Town and the ore
field is continually increasing, making the construction of Jiaozuo’s
urban area gradually larger and the local business prospering. In 1924,
the output of raw coal in Jiaozuo Coal Mine had reached more than 1.6
million tons, ranking the third in China after Kailuan and Fushun Coal
Mines. The number of workers in Fuzhong Company had reached more
than 20,000, making it the largest group of workers in the Central Plains
and Jiaozuo becoming a famous coal city at that time (Sohu.com,
2019b). In the early 1930s, Jiaozuo was a modern town having a certain
size. In a word, it was the most prosperous period of Jiaozuo during the
several years (1920s) of the Republic of China (Ma, 2011; Cheng, 2007).
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Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164
2.2. The period of urban decline caused by war (1939–1949) and the
development of coal mines after the founding of the People’s Republic of
China (1949–1989)
Jiaozuo was occupied by the Japanese army in February 1938. They
drove away British merchants and pillaged 4.77 million tons of coal
resources in the seven years of occupying the Jiaozuo coal mine from
February 1938 to September 1945 (the first liberation of Jiaozuo) (Sohu.
com, 2019b). Affected by the war, the workers and equipments of the
Jiaozuo coal mine were forced to relocate twice: migration to the south
from the end of 1937 to the beginning of 1938 and to the revolutionary
base areas in southeastern Shanxi during the Civil War from 1945 to
1949 (CCIN, 2011). It was a decade of suffering a severe damage to the
development in Jiaozuo City from the end of 1937 to the end of 1948.
Since 1949, Jiaozuo City has made outstanding contributions and
achieved brilliant accomplishments in the construction process after the
founding of New China. With strong support of the state, the Jiaozuo
coal industry has developed rapidly and plays a pivotal role in the urban
economy. From 1953 to 1957, the state listed the Jiaozuo mining area as
a key construction unit with a total investment of 73.935 million Yuan to
concentrate on the development of the coal industry, restored and built a
number of mines (Chen, 2005). From 1958 to 1962, focusing on the
development of heavy industry, 18 to 34 million Yuan was invested in
the development of coal resources every year with an annual coal output
of 6.9 million tons (Chen, 2005). From 1986 to 1990, the local coal
output value of Jiaozuo accounted for 30% of the total output value of
the national coal industry (Chen, 2005). Taking the coal industry and
the steel industry as the pillars, the development of the transportation,
machinery manufacturing and maintenance, refractory materials and
other industries that serve them has laid the foundation for the devel­
opment of Jiaozuo industry (Chen, 2005).
2.3. The gradual depletion of coal resources and attempting revitalization
and exploring transformation (1990-present)
The rise and development of Jiaozuo City is always the coal mining
and primary processing industry as the leading industry. Beginning in
1990, the Jiaozuo coal industry has gradually entered a period of atro­
phy and suffered from annual losses and difficulties in operation, leading
related industries to a recessionary state, a sharp decline in the economy,
and the layoff of a large number of workers. One-third of the mines in
Y. Zhao et al. Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164

Jiaozuo Mining Bureau were in a state of loss and there were yet more
than 20,000 retirees by 1995 (Accounting for one-third of the total
number of employees in the mining area) (Sohu.com, 2019b); by 1999,
the total debt amounted to 1.15 billion Yuan, and laid-off workers in the
coal industry accounted for one-sixth of the total number of employees
in Jiaozuo City (Chen, 2005). The exploitation of Jiaozuo coal mine in
the past more than 100 years has exhausted its resources. With the
gradual shrink in resource reserves and the failing of leading industries,
this resource-based city with a single structure has the danger of decay
and the difficulty of sustainable development. Jiaozuo’s GDP dropped
by 16% and fiscal revenue fell by 24% in 1999, and the whole city was in
urgent need of transformation (Y. Li et al., 2016).
After entering the 21st century, Jiaozuo has successfully realized
transformation from “black impression” to “green theme”. Depending on
the rich tourism resources, superior location and geographical trait,
Fig. 4. Jiaozuo Tai Chi sports center. (Photo source: Authors.)
Jiaozuo municipal government puts forward the idea of “building
Jiaozuo tourism landscape brand” since the 1990s. It has not only built
three internationally influential theme brands: the world geo-park,
Jiaozuo landscape (Fig. 3), Tai Chi (Fig. 4), but also created an excel­
lent tourist city in China, and set up a new external image of Jiaozuo
(Liu, 2010). Since the end of 1999, Jiaozuo City has adjusted its in­
dustrial structure (Fig. 5), carried out “strategic transfer” in the sec­
ondary industry and “tourism as the main driver of development” in the
tertiary industry, grown vigorously and gained certain results (Chen,
2005). In March 2008, Jiaozuo was identified as one of the first batch of
12 cities with exhausted resources in China and implemented the fiscal
transfer payment policy for these cities (CSC and CEN, 2013). In
February 2006, the United Nations World Tourism Assessment Center Fig. 5. Changes in the three major industrial structures of Jiaozuo. (Data
awarded the honor of “World Outstanding Tourism Service Brand” for source: Jiaozuo statistical yearbook).
Jiaozuo tourism, which was the first city in China to win this honor. In
2013, Jiaozuo became a member of the World Tourism Cities Federation
driven by energy development, and the years in this zone are mainly
and was listed as one of the “Top Ten Innovative Cities in China” by the
1991–1997 and 2001–2010. Zone III is the high-intensity resource
Institute of Contemporary China at the Hong Kong Baptist University. In
development but slow economic growth, which may be effected by the
2018, the number of domestic and overseas tourists reached 52.8344
“resource curse”, and 2013–2018 lied in the interval. 2011 and 2012 are
million person-times, comprehensive revenue from tourism reached
negative growth in energy development and slow economic growth.
43.345 billion Yuan (Sohu.com, 2019a). In November 2020, Jiaozuo
That is to say, such two years have been a transitional period from the
won the title of National Civilized City.
resource-driven development to being affected by the “resources curse”
in Jiaozuo City. Coincidentally, Jiaozuo’s coal resources have been
3. Empirical framework, methodology and data collection
exhausted around 2010, and it was listed in the first batch of resource-
exhausted cities by the State Council, which is in urgent need of
3.1. Econometric model
transformation.
The core view of the transmission mechanism of the “resource curse”
In order to determine the specific time when the phenomenon of
mainly includes the “Dutch disease” effect, “crowding-out” effect,
“resource curse” in Jiaozuo City appeared and existed, this paper selects
weakening of political system and fluctuation in terms of trade (Cheng
1989–2018 as the analysis time period. We obtained the relationship
et al., 2020; Lashitew and Werker, 2020). The “Dutch disease” effect
between energy development and economic growth (Fig. 6) based on the
refers to the recession of manufacturing on account of the higher return
data of 1989 (owing to the main energy development in Jiaozuo City is
rate on investment and the raising wage rate in the resource-based in­
coal; we choose raw coal mining to represent energy development in­
dustry sector and resulting in the loss of manufacturing labor and capital
tensity). As can be seen from Fig. 6, ZoneII is an economic growth area
transfers (Shao and Yang, 2014; Qian et al., 2019). ②The resource sector

Fig. 3. Yuntaishan Geo-park, Jiaozuo Studios city, Longyuanhu Park (Photo source: Jiaozuo tourism: http://zx.hnjzta.gov.cn/images.jspx?id=138.).

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Y. Zhao et al. Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164

Table 1
Variable definition.
Indicator name Variable Index calculation
representation

Economic growth gp gpt = (GPt − GPt− 1 )/

GPt− 1
Energy development E Energy industry output value/Gross
intensity industry output value (%)
“Dutch disease” effect MAN (i = 1) Number of manufacturing
employees/Total industrial
employees, at the end of the year (%)
“Crowding-out” effect EDU (i = 2) Expenditure on education/Financial
(Education) expenditure (%)
“Crowding-out” effect RD (i = 3) Number of persons for R&D per
(Science and 10,000 population (person)
technology)
Weakening of COR (i = 4) Number of duty crimes approved to
political system arrest and prosecute by the People’s
(Corruption) Procuratorate per 10,000 population
(person)
Fluctuation in terms OPEN (i = 5) Total import and export trade/GDP
of trade (Regional (%)
openness)
Fig. 6. Exploitation of coal resources and economic growth in Jiaozuo City
from 1989 to 2018. (Data source: Jiaozuo statistical yearbook).
3.2. Data source and variable description
can attract a great deal of investments to squeeze other industrial
development, thus cause more human capital costs due to the rapid According to the availability and validity, the data to evaluate the
increased prices, and then hinder economy of resource-rich regions (Xu time of Jiaozuo City being affected by the “resource curse” is from 1989
et al., 2016; Qian et al., 2019; Cheng et al., 2020), namely the extrusion to 2018 of Henan Statistical Yearbook. Since the starting time of the data
effects. But human capital is a flexible variable in reality, which may not in the Jiaozuo Statistical Yearbook is 2002, the sample period in the
only become a transmission channel of the curse, but also be a crucial econometric model was selected from 2002 to 2018.
factor in evading the curse (Shao and Yang, 2014). ③Abundant natural As to the parameters, the paper selects economic growth rate, energy
resources can weaken the quality of local political systems by encour­ development intensity and five affecting factors by the “resource curse”
aging rent-seeking and corrupt practices (Zallé, 2019; Dong et al., 2019; mechanism (see Table 1). Since there is no ready-made energy industry
Cheng et al., 2020). ④Local residents possessing plenty natural re­ output value accounted in China’s statistical yearbook, the calculation
sources may have various degrees of resistance to reform and opening method in this study is that the energy industry output value is equal to
up, or the rise in mining and environmental costs due to shrinking re­ the total output value of mining and washing of coal, extraction of pe­
sources has made the prices of manufactured products in the troleum and natural gas, processing of petroleum, coking, processing of
resource-rich region higher than imported products, which will intensify nucleus fuel, production and supply of electric power and heat power.
the deterioration of the manufacturing industry. These will all worsen
the trade terms (Cheng et al., 2020). 4. Results and discussion
In order to investigate the effects of natural resource on economic
growth of Jiaozuo City, we first establish the following basic econo­ 4.1. The results of the regression calculation of the econometric model
metric model according to the aforementioned analysis on the “resource
curse” theory and learning from Zheng and Luo (2013), Yan et al. We analyzed the 17-year sample data of Jiaozuo City from 2002 to
(2019): 2018 respectively by linear regression, and the empirical results were
shown in Table 2.
gpt = α0 + α1 ⋅Et + θt 1
4.2. Experiences and lessons of Jiaozuo City development based on the
gpt = β0 + β1i ⋅Xit + δt 2
analysis of the whole process of history
Xit = γ0 + γ1i ⋅Et + μt 3
Although Jiaozuo is a small and mid-sized city, its development
where gpt is economic growth variable, Et represents energy develop­ course has been branded with deep historical imprints and distinctive
ment intensity variable, Xit signifies a proxy variable in each effect of the local specialties. Coal and tourism resources respectively play a key role
transmission mechanism (Subscripts i = 1̃5 is each proxy variable in in the early and late stages of Jiaozuo development. The experiences in
Table 1, t is year). α0 , β0 , γ0 are the constants, α1 , β1i , γ1i are the unde­ the growing and transformation step of this resource-based city are
termined coefficients, θt , δt , μt are a random disturbance term that varies worthy of in-depth thinking and the scientific laws should be seriously
with time. Formula and ② respectively represent the direct impact of summarized.
energy development and various transmission mechanism proxy vari­
ables on economic growth; Formula ③ represents the impact of energy 4.2.1. The cause of the rapid development of jiaozuo from a backward
development on various intermediate proxy variables. village to a modern industrialized city in the past century
The Xit in Equation ③ is substituted into Equation ② to obtain: From 1898 to 1939, from the point of urban development, the British
brought the birth and boom of Jiaozuo City in spite of the purpose of
gpt = (β0 + β1i ⋅ γ0 ) + β1i ⋅ γ1i ⋅ Et + (β1i ⋅ μt + δt ) 4 plundering resources. They brought the advanced technology and suf­
ficient funds benefited from the two industrial revolutions into the re­
where β1i ⋅γ1i represents the indirect impact of energy development on gion. It changed the lagging state of Jiaozuo original manual workshops,
economic growth through influencing intermediate proxy variables, that laid the development road of Jiaozuo’s modern industrial production,
is, the transmission mechanism of “resource curse” in economic growth. and built the early urban scale of Jiaozuo which has enabled Jiaozuo to
quickly complete the transition from rural market town to modern city,

6
Y. Zhao et al. Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164

Table 2
Empirical results of the conduction mechanism of “resource curse” by linear regression calculation.
β1i Estimated value γ1i Estimated value β1i ⋅γ1i Estimated value Summation Influence level (%)

β11 0.301*** γ11 − 1.183** β11 ⋅γ11 − 0.356 5

∑ 22.88
β1i ⋅γ1i = -1.556
β12 0.75* γ12 − 0.122 β12 ⋅γ12 − 0.092 i=1 5.91
β13 0.215*** γ13 − 2.64*** β13 ⋅γ13 − 0.568 36.5
β14 − 2.665*** γ14 0.17*** β14 ⋅γ14 − 0.453 29.11
β15 0.995* γ15 − 0.087 β15 ⋅γ15 − 0.087 5.59

*, **, *** denote statistical significance levels at 10, 5 and 1%, respectively.
⑴ The estimated value of β1i represents the influence coefficient of the proxy variable in five effects on economic growth. It can be seen from the second column of Table 2 that, except for
the corruption variable (β14 < 0), all the other variables (coefficients greater than 0) have a positive role in promoting economic growth. In other words, as the rise of the proportion of
manufacturing employees in the industrial practitioners, education investment in fiscal expenditure, the number of scientific and technological employees, and the share of import and
export trade in GDP, the economy will achieve a certain degree of growth. And with the increase in the number of duty crimes filed and investigated by the People’s Procuratorate per
10,000 populations, it is bound to hinder economic growth. This is consistent with the reality, demonstrating that the estimated value of β1i has more accurate economic meaning. In the
meantime, the estimated coefficient of β11 , β13 , β14 is significant at the 1% level, manifesting that the number of employees in the manufacturing and R&D industries (positive impact)
and the job-related crime (negative impact) have a significant influence on economic development.
⑵ The estimated value of γ1i shows the influence coefficient of energy development intensity on each transmission mechanism. In Table 2, apart from the weakening effect of political
system (γ14 > 0), which increases with the augment of energy development intensity, the remaining four variables all decrease to varying degrees. Meanwhile, the estimated coefficient
of γ13 and γ14 is significant at the 1% level and γ11 is 5%, proving that the labor force will be transferred from manufacturing and R&D sectors to resource sectors to a great extent, and
the probability of job-related crimes will also be obviously increased with the increase of energy development intensity.
⑶ The estimated value of β1i ⋅γ1i signifies the indirect effect of energy development intensity on economic growth through the influence on intermediate transmission mechanism
variables. All the estimates are negative, suggesting that energy development is acting as a barrier to economic growth through transmission mechanisms. It can be concluded that
the “Dutch disease” effect, “crowding out” effect and “weakening system” effect all had different levels of influence on the economic growth of Jiaozuo City during the 17 years from
2002 to 2018. In addition, the calculation results of the model show that for every increase of one unit in the sum of the effects of the five transmission mechanisms, the hindering effect
of energy development on economic growth will increase by 1.556 units.
⑷ The estimated result of α1 in equation is − 0.528, which means that when the intensity of energy development increases by 1%, the per capita GDP growth rate will drop by 0.528%.
By comparing these direct and indirect effect coefficients of the energy development on economic growth, we found that the indirect impact (1.556) through transmission mechanisms
such as the “Dutch Disease”, “crowding out” and “system weakening” effects is significantly greater than its direct impact (0.528). Generally speaking, Jiaozuo’s economy is affected by
a mild “resource curse”. From the degree of influence, science and technology activities had the greatest influence on the economy (36.55%), followed by rent seeking activities or
corruption (29.11%) and manufacturing squeezing (22.88%). In addition, from the perspective of the synchronicity of the change between the energy development and economic
growth rate, the development trend of the two in the 1992–1996 and 2000–2007 intervals is consistent (Fig. 7), indicating that energy resource (coal) exploitation has a certain role in
promoting economic growth of Jiaozuo City. Judging from the aforementioned urban development history (section 2.3), since 2008, the coal resources of Jiaozuo City have been
exhausted and the successful transformation has been carried out, so the mutual feedback mechanism between energy and economy has hardly existed (the irregularity after 2008 in
Fig. 7 also confirms this).

and develop rapidly into a fully functional medium-sized city in China at

that time (Han et al., 2008). Hence, from the rise and gradual prosperity
of Jiaozuo City, it indicates that the technology, capital and population
scale play a foremost role in addition to abundant coal resources. The
war led to the decline of this city but the great development in the time
of new China construction, which also showed that the special status and
circumstances have a great impact on the development of this
resource-based city.

4.2.2. Experiences learned from the successful transformation
Since the Jiaozuo mining area entered the stage of large-scale
attenuation in the 1990s, the development of Jiaozuo City is also fac­
ing serious problems of transformation. Yet, the local government of
Jiaozuo seized the final opportunity of urban transformation to cultivate
alternative industries through studying its own superiorities and made
breakthrough. For more than ten years since 1996, Jiaozuo has suc­
cessfully transformed from a resource-based city over-relying on the coal
industry to a comprehensive city dominated by energy, chemical in­
dustry, metallurgy, building materials and tourism (Chen, 2005).
Jiaozuo has Taihang Mountain in the north and Yellow River in the
south and is also the birthplace of Tai Chi, so it has unique geological
and geomorphic characteristics and fruitful tourism resources. In terms
of geographic advantages, Jiaozuo belongs to the “semi-hour economic
circle” of Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province, with conve­
nient transportation (a number of high-speed and intercity railways,
highways, etc.) (Fig. 8), coupled with the vigorous construction of urban
infrastructure and the widespread publicity of the city image. All these
factors have been boosting the rapid development of Jiaozuo tourism
industry (Fig. 9). Furthermore, in the early phase of Jiaozuo’s trans­
formation, the central government’s favorably preferential policies and
special fund support were also crucial. At the end of 2007, the State
Council in China issued the “Several Opinions on Promoting the Sus­
tainable Development of Resource-based Cities”, for the first time put
forward to establish compensation mechanism of resources
Fig. 7. Analysis of feedback mechanism between energy (coal) exploitation and
economic growth in Jiaozuo City. (Data source: Jiaozuo statistical yearbook).
development and to aid declining industries, intensify financial general
and special transfer payments. The first 12 resource-exhausted cities
were identified in 2008 which includes Jiaozuo City. At the end of 2016,
the State Council approved the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration
Plan, clarifying a networked space development pattern that 14 cities
(including Jiaozuo City) have become core development zones and
radiating other 16 cities in parallel. In July 2017, the State Council
approved the “Master Plan of Jiaozuo City (2011–2020)”. Therefore,
under the guidance of national policies and financial support, the gov­
ernments of Henan Province and Jiaozuo City have seized the last op­
portunity and formulated and implemented corresponding development
plans in recent years. These policies have played a good role in pro­
moting the transformation of the entire city, and enterprises have
improved their capabilities through restructuring and structural
adjustment. The tourism industry has used Jiaozuo’s advantageous
tourism resources to build and intensify publicity, which has enhanced
Jiaozuo’s tourism city brand and simultaneously solved many employ­
ment problems which to indirectly safeguard the social stability. In
recent years, the municipal departments have increased the urban
environment and infrastructure construction to improve the quality of
the city, such as the Jiaozuo water system renovation project of black
and odorous water bodies and the planning and construction of

7
Y. Zhao et al.
Fig. 8. The “half-hour economic circle” and “pozidriv-shaped high-speed rail distribution” of zhengzhou.
Fig. 9. Changes in tourism income and tourist reception volume in Jiaozuo.
(Data source: HSB, 2003-2018).
transportation hubs.
4.2.3. Lessons learned during the transition
The success or failure of a city transformation is mainly judged from
the following aspects: Whether to find a way out from the single struc­
ture that has plagued the urban development, to make scientific and
reasonable adjustment so as to make the city rejuvenate, healthy and
sustainable development; Whether the urban environment has greatly
improved and sped up all-round social progress (Mao, 2014); Whether
the image has changed, and whether the people’s life is comfortable.
Jiaozuo, as a successful example of the transformation of
resource-dependent cities in China, has also experienced some setbacks
in the transitional process while achieving fruitful results. Unified
8
Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164
deployment and management of the planned economy period, along
with the reform and opening up and Jiaozuo coal resources dries up, has
not adapted to the developing pace. It has caused the socio-economic of
Jiaozuo to undergo a rapidly unprecedented decline. At the same time, a
series of problems such as ground collapse and deterioration of the water
and atmospheric environment have given people a “black impression”
due to the madness of extensive coal mining in the past century.
Therefore, these urgent issues forced the Jiaozuo municipal government
to make a strategic change in the thinking of urban development. That is
to gradually replace the previous industrial structure which was domi­
nated by energy and primary processing industry with tourism-driven
service industry.
Although Jiaozuo City has seized the last chance under the favorable
situation of national policy tilt and financial support to formulate a
general policy of tourism city construction with “green theme” based on
the superiority of local tourism resources, it is a passive transformation
in the case of resource depletion so that there are some blindness and
lack of a long-term overall planning. The first is that the foundation of
economic transformation is unstable; especially the structural contra­
dictions remain still acute. Judging from the changes in industrial added
value of diverse industries in Jiaozuo City (Fig. 10), its economic
development still relies heavily on the processing of mineral resources
and the machinery manufacturing industry, while the development of
other industries is relatively slow, especially the development of ad­
vantageous and characteristic industries is still uncoordinated, non-
resource-based industries lack vitality and motivation, and new areas
of economic growth has not yet formed scale. This has also been verified
in the previous analysis of the urban development of Jiaozuo City using
the “resource curse” theory and the results of the econometric model
calculation. The second is that industrial development only focuses on
Y. Zhao et al. Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164

Fig. 10. Changes of industrial added value of different industries above designated scale in Jiaozuo City. (Data source: Jiaozuo statistical yearbook).

the expansion of scale and quality improvement is insufficient. Fig. 11

shows that the accommodation income is mainly from ordinary hotels
and three-star hotels, while Fig. 12 demonstates that the catering and
retail income is dominated by private sector. Both figures reflect that the
service industry is at a low-level development stage. It should be noted
that such development benefits only temporarily but is extremely
detrimental to long-term development and there is a risk of a second
recession after a certain stage of development. The third is that urban
functions still need to be improved, infrastructure is incomplete, and
cultural education, medical care and other public services are
insufficient.
In short, Jiaozuo City is currently in the “climbing stage” of trans­
formation. It will be a long-term, arduous and complicated process
affected by industrial structure, production factor, local financial re­
sources and environment.

5. Conclusion and policy implications
As a part of human history, the process of urban development and
change contains certain scientific rules. There are many experiences and
lessons deserving to sum up in the transformation process of resource-
based cities from prosperity to decline or boom again. Among 69
resource-exhausted cities in China, Jiaozuo receives close attention
because of its successful transformation (Zhang et al., 2018). Therefore,
Fig. 11. Revenue Share of Hotels at all levels in Jiaozuo City in 2016. (Data
source: Jiaozuo statistical yearbook).
Fig. 12. Revenue of Catering and Retail Business in Private and Large Star-
rated Hotels in Jiaozuo City from 2011 to 2014. (Data source: Jiaozuo statis­
tical yearbook).
this paper investigated the problem of “resource curse” and discussed
development history and economic characteristics, as well as recent
challenges and problems towards economic revitalization in Jiaozuo
City. This study not only provides the practical reference for the tran­
sition of resource-exhausted city and development of traditional indus­
trial city, but also has significant merits on enriching the theoretical
connotation and expanding the space of theory application (Ma and Ai.
2018). The main conclusions are as follows:
Over the whole sample period, Jiaozuo achieved good development
driven by energy development during 1991–1997 and 2001–2010, but it
has been affected by “resource curse” to a certain extent since 2013.
From the perspective of the “resource curse” mechanism, the develop­
ment of Jiaozuo was mainly influenced by the “crowding out” effect and
“Dutch disease”, namely the squeezing of manufacturing and scientific
and technological activities caused by the reliance of the energy in­
dustry, as well as corruption. So, ⑴it is necessary to actively adjust the
industrial structure, develop new industries and reduce dependence on
the energy industry, so as to avoid and eliminate the negative impact of
the “resource curse” on the economy. The development stage of
resource-based cities is divided into growth, maturity and recession
period. The type of urban transformation is split into industrial

9
Y. Zhao et al.
upgrading and industry conversion/replacement. The key to enhance
the competitiveness of resource-based cities is leading industry in
transition (Mao, 2014). One of the keys to a successful transformation is
to pick the right type and nurture the next dominant industry before
resource cities go bust. Before the decline of coal mining and processing
industry, Jiaozuo promoted tourism and services and improved their
competitiveness. ⑵Measures such as optimizing the allocation structure
of fiscal expenditures, establishing sound laws, regulations and super­
vision mechanisms, strengthening the introduction of talents and in­
vestment in science and technology, and preventing corruption can
reduce the indirect hindrance effect of “resource curse” on economic
growth. Local officials, particularly local top leaders, play a very
important role in key strategic decision formulation and implementation
(Zhang et al., 2018; Ma and Ai. 2018). Direct deployment of the planned
economy (Hou et al., 2018) and performance-evaluation system for local
officials (Zhang et al., 2018) in the past are not conducive to the
decision-making of the long-term development, and it will lead to
resource-based cities trapped in a viciously abnormal circle of devel­
opment. Because they will lead to the loss of vitality of urban develop­
ment and the simplification of urban structure; the evaluation system of
officials will also cause the lack of long-term planning for the develop­
ment of the city and impossible to make adaptive adjustments according
to local conditions and changes in the situation (since officials will
merely pursue the economic indicators and political achievements, and
good policies will not be able to continue after the replacement of
officials.).
From the development process of Jiaozuo City, the resource
endowment is its foundation. This is evidenced by the high-quality coal
resources that have been in place for more than a century before 1990s,
and the advantageous tourism resources that have successfully been
made use from urban transformation to the present. Subsequently, the
input of funds and technology has played an inseparable role in fueling
the situation. It has been proved by the capital input and industrial
revolution achievements brought by the early British entering Jiaozuo
for coal mining, and the central government’s preferential policy and
financial support (Yu et al., 2016) to facilitate through industrial
deployment in the transition process of Jiaozuo in the late 1990s.
Moreover, Jiaozuo authority seizes the critical moment of trans­
formation adhering to the planning as the guide (Yu et al., 2016; Ma and
Ai, 2018) and formulating the goals and strategies for its transformation
(Yu et al., 2016) to foster alternative industries in advance. At last, the
successful transformation of Jiaozuo can also be attributed to four main
factors: road density, location advantage (Tan et al., 2016), recon­
struction of the city image and extensive propaganda. The new revolu­
tion with information technology as the core promotes the optimization
of regional market allocation of important production factors, the state
of infrastructure such as transportation, communication, and power
supply determines the height of urban development. The central city -
Zhengzhou, an international metropolis, has a significant radiation ef­
fect on its neighboring city - Jiaozuo (Fig. 8). In such a favorable location
situation, Jiaozuo City has also increased the construction of urban
infrastructure (e.g. Longyuanhu park (Fig. 3 photo-3), Fengshanzhen
park and other leisure areas for urban residents) and the advertising
(CCTV advertisements in scenic spots such as Yuntai Mountain (Fig. 3
photo-1) and in sports culture: Tai Chi (Fig. 4)). The traditional “black”
image of the old industrialized coal city has been replaced by a beautiful
city owing more “green” image and it has created a win-win for economy
and environment (Dong et al., 2017; Ma and Ai, 2018).
In the long term, we propose the following recommendations to
accelerate Jiaozuo City sustainable development. First, Jiaozuo should
make full use of its historical value like the ruins of the General Head­
quarters of Jiaozuo Workers Strike, the office site of Yingfu Company,
the site of Daoqing Railway to develop historical education tourism, and
take full advantage of the abandoned mining heritage (Wheeler, 2014;
Harfst, 2015) with other leisure activities to exploit the miner experi­
ential travel aiming to lay a foundation for future development
10
Energy Policy 150 (2021) 112164
planning. Second, Jiaozuo cannot be transformed from a single structure
of coal and processing industry to another development model relying
solely on tourism. It should upgrade the manufacturing industry, invest
in the cultural industry, innovation of agricultural technology (Liang
and Jin, 2011) and stimulate the service industry with high added value
(Yu et al., 2015) to avoid falling into the secondary “resource curse”.
Third, Jiaozuo should strengthen intergovernmental policy making co­
ordination and long-term planning to design regional and industrial
symbiosis (circular economy) with waste and energy exchange through
optimizing the material and energy flow within industrial parks and
between industries and urban (Yu et al., 2015; Li et al., 2015). The
related talents and industrial chains are all needed to be fostered
together (Li et al., 2015) to enhance the comprehensive development.
Based on consulting Chinese and foreign scholars’ research on urban
transformation and a large amount of historical data on urban devel­
opment in Jiaozuo, this paper summarizes the experiences and lessons of
Jiaozuo’s transformation process through the analysis of the entire
development process of Jiaozuo City, the application of “resource curse”
theory in econometric model and the analysis of industry development
indicators. It has guiding significance and certain reference value for the
adjustment of energy structure for resource-based cities that have the
same problems of transformation. In a word, through the study of the
urban development process of Jiaozuo City, we found that technology,
capital and population scale were the main reasons for the rise of the city
in the early stage of its development, driven by coal resources. And for
the prosperity of Jiaozuo City, the UK has a certain driving role. During
the transformation of the city, driven by tourism resources, the city
adjusted its industrial structure, rebuilt its urban infrastructure, and
remodeled its image. Local governments exercised great control over the
direction of urban development and the central government’s concerns
and orientation investment, etc., all of which play a key role. However,
due to the limited sample (only 17 years of data from 2002 to 2018 were
collected), the particularity of Jiaozuo (formerly dependent on coal re­
sources and then turned to tourism resources) and the multiplicity of the
channels through which resources affect GDP growth (Lashitew and
Werker, 2020), there is still some uncertainties associated with the
instability of urban economic and trade activities and limitations in the
study of a city transformation that is affected by multiple factors through
conducting an econometric model of “resource curse”. Hence, several
directions arise for future research. For example, the study can be
augmented by introducing new variables like environmental elements
and tourism industry despite the great challenge of in-depth research of
evaluation method. Furthermore, it would be interesting to make a
comparative analysis of several cities.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yanqi Zhao: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data
curation, Writing - original draft, preparation, Writing - review & edit­
ing. Ying Yang: Investigation, Visualization. Sobkowiak Leszek: Su­
pervision. Xinyi Wang: Project administration, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank reviewers for their helpful
suggestions.
This research was jointly supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (41672240), the Innovation Scientists and Tech­
nicians Troop Construction Projects of Henan Province (CXTD2016053),
the Fundamental Research Funds for the Universities of Henan Province
Y. Zhao et al.
(NSFRF1611), Doctoral Fund of Henan Polytechnic University (B2012-
106), and China Scholarship Council (201807770012).
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