Study on the impact of urban mineral demonstration base construction policy on resource utilization efficiency

Urban minerals, which are important mineral resources contained in waste products and production waste, can partially replace the primary mineral mining with a lower environment cost. The policy of urban mineral demonstration base construction is a basic policy to solve the problems of insufficient development and small scale of urban mineral utilization related industries in China, which plays an important role in improving the efficiency of mineral resources utilization and ensuring the security of resources. To align with the policy objectives of constructing urban mineral demonstration bases, this paper quantitatively assesses the improvement in resource utilization efficiency and analyzes the mechanism of the policy. Based on the panel data of 279 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2018, this paper applies the super-efficiency slack based measure （SBM） model and difference-in-difference （DID） model to assess the impact effect of the urban mineral demonstration base construction policy on resource utilization efficiency. The study finds that: firstly, the implementation of the policy improves the resource utilization efficiency of the cities where the demonstration bases are located, with an average effect of 12.7%, and the effect of the policy has dynamic continuity; secondly, there is significant in the effect of the policy, and the enhancement is higher in the cities with high administrative levels, resource cities and larger cities; thirdly, the mechanism test shows that the manufacturing industry agglomeration and the green technological innovation are two core paths in which the policy plays a role. This paper proposes three policy recommendations: firstly, improves the policy system of urban mineral demonstration bases and expand the distribution of demonstration bases; secondly, takes the cultivation of manufacturing clusters and the promotion of green technological innovation as important tools for the development of the circular economy; thirdly, promotes the implementation of policies in accordance with local conditions and take the lead in fostering favorable factors for the growth of resource-utilization efficiency.