Have the transformation of resource-based cities impacted the innovation capacity? – Based on Chinese data from 2000 to 2019

Purpose It has been ten years since the policy was implemented, but the effect of the policy needs to be tested empirically. This paper aims to explore the mechanism of policy influence on regional innovation ability by measuring the effectiveness of policy by innovation ability indicators. Further, it reflects the problems in the process of the transformation and development of resource-based cities in recent years and points out the direction for the development of the cities in the future. In addition, this paper discusses the differences between regions and cities in China and seeks the path to narrow the gap. Design/methodology/approach This paper mainly uses the difference-in-difference method for the research. This study divided China’s resource-based cities and non-resource-based cities into experimental groups and control groups, and explored the effect of the transformation and development of resource-based cities and the changes of their innovation ability under the influence of the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-based Cities (NSDPRC). More carefully, this paper uses the fixed effects regression model, propensity score matching method, bootstrap method and other methods to improve the empirical results. Findings This paper finds that NSDPRC significantly improves the innovation ability of resource-based cities, although there is some lag in this effect. Research on the influence mechanism of policies shows that NSDPRC improves the marketization degree of resource-based cities and reduces the proportion of the secondary industry in such cities. Finally, the results of the heterogeneity analysis confirm that policies are more popular in western China and that resource-based cities in growth, maturity and decline are more vulnerable to policy influence. The development of policy effectiveness also requires the size of a city, and maintaining a healthy and reasonable scale is necessary for urban development. Originality/value First, the existing research on the development of resource-based cities is mainly from the perspective of economy and environment, but rarely from the perspective of innovation ability, and the index to measure urban development is relatively single. This paper will compensate for this deficiency. Second, different from the European and American countries that have basically completed the industrial transformation, the research on Chinese cities will provide a reference for the transformation of developing countries. Finally, from the perspective of resource endowment theory and innovation theory, this paper discusses the influence of SDPNRBC mechanism on the innovation ability improvement of resource-based cities, and further improves and enriches the theory.