| City is a national or regional economic, social and cultural development center, and it’s the assembly points of economic, cultural and other resources. With its unique agglomerative effect, scale effect and relatively low transaction costs, the city attracts a large number of resources to concentrate to the urban areas, and the modern city has become a complex where various elements interact with each other. Practice has proved that a city’s operational efficiency level of resources plays a significant role for enhancing its overall competitiveness. However, we should also see that, in the past, in promoting the city’s comprehensive competitiveness, the city governments often pay high attention to the operational efficiency of urban resources with private goods nature, but neglect the operational efficiency of public resources with public goods nature. Until the 80’s of 20th century, the issues of urban public resources operation were revealed in the research of the urban governance mode by the international public management scholars. Later, with the development of new institutional economics, those issues has been studied as an independent subject or a framework. Meanwhile, in the practice of developed countries, the governments also began to gradually realize the problems in the process of urban public resources operation, and opposed that urban public resources operation was not only the problem of operating subjects, but also involved the problem of operating ways and inherent regularity. In China, under the long-term impact of the planned economy system, research of urban public resources operation started relatively late. Although it has yielded some results, most of the research only focused on a certain type of operational issues of public resources. There were still differences in opinions and vague in statement on the basic theoretical problems of urban public resources including the operating subjects, objects, objectives, means and ways etc., which influenced the practicality of the theory.In our country, the practice of urban public resources operation began in the period of acceleration of urbanization. The rapid urban development proposed objective requirements for city government to operate urban public resources; in turn, the city governments’operation of public resources promoted the further development of urbanization. The fiscal decentralization system was another factor which promoted the city governments to speeden operation of urban public resources. That is, local government spending pressure caused by the fiscal decentralization system has forced the local government actively seek the solution of "more outcomes with no spending or less investment". Therefore, to operate the urban public resources has become the first choice of local government. An urban development pattern has been gradually developed, that is to "ensure wages, operation and people’s livelihood" with budgeted funds, while to make urban construction with operating income of urban public resources. And the premier goal of urban public resources operation has formed, that is to finance to keep and construct the city depending on unban public resources. With the acceleration of urbanization process, intensifying urban competition, and growth in demand for urban public services brought by urbanization, the goal of urban public resources operation of developed urban areas has been changing from simply raising funds to improving the city competitiveness and urban public service. The change of city governments’operation goal of public resources has further promoted the process of urbanization in China. Therefore, more and more public resources have gradually come into the city governments’vision.To operate the urban public resources has become the common goal to city governance. The governments have achieved a lot of successful experience in practice, but a lot of problems have been exposed, such as unicity problem of the operating subjects, objects, modes as well as operating income, which need to be solved in theory and better guide the practice. Therefore, to enhance the research of urban public resources operation, establish and improve the theory of public resources operation adapting the urban development has important theoretical and practical significance. Based on the above discussion, the paper tries to carry on research and exploration of operating mechanism of unban public resources from defination and characteristics of urban public resources and other basic theories, based on in-depth analysis of the operational status and problems of public resources in our country, as well as foreign experiences, hoping to propose some strategies to better serve the city governments’ practice of public resources operation.OneTo research the operating mechanism of urban public resources, the city managers first should have an accurate defination of urban public resources, and address the basic theoretical problems such as what urban public resources are, and what characteristics they have etc. Only by this way, can the managers make rational and scientific operation strategy based on different public resources. This is not only the starting point of theory, but also the entry point of practical work. Based on this consideration, the author carries on research in depth from three different perspectives, including the definition, characteristics and extension of urban public resources.First is about the definition of urban public resources. Looking at the western economic circles, they mainly define the public resources from three perspectives:the economic attributes (i.e. exclusiveness and competitiveness), the use attributes(i.e. exclusiveness and interoperability) and property attributes of goods. And three different definitions of public resources have been formed:First is based on the economic attributes of goods, dividing economic goods into four categories, including pure public goods, private goods, club goods and public resources, of which public resources are defined as "resources with both consumer non-exclusiveness and consumer competitiveness". Second is based on the use attributes of goods, dividing the economic goods into also four categories, including public goods, private goods, toll goods and common-pool resources, of which public resources (also known as common-pool resources) are defined as "public goods which are commonly used but respectively enjoyed by people". Third is based on property attributes of goods, defining the public resources as public-owned resources. The three different definitions of public resources have played significant role for theoretical research. However, in today’s rapid urbanization, there are great differences between the public resources defined according to the three standards and operated by the government in reality. One reason is lacking of investigation over the objective factors such as mutual transformation among different types of resources caused by the "congestion problem" and "government regulation", thus caused differences between the theoretical definition and objective reality of public resources; Another reason is ignoring the specificity of property rights and government regulation in our country. From the current situation, most of the public resources owned by the government in our country are not purely the common-pool resources in the West, but most time the government property rights resources and government regulation resources formed under the special historical background and development process. In view of this, in order to make the study more practical, from the broader perspective, the author innovatively defines the urban public resources as "resources with public goods nature", resources which the government has property rights and resources formed with government regulation. The aim is to fully consider the internal factors and external factors which impact the public resource types, and achieve the unity of subjective and objective summary of public resources, thereby enhance the applicability of theory in practice.Second is about the characteristics of urban public resources. Because of the existence of city characteristics, compared with the general public resources, urban public resources also have their own characteristics in addition to the "non-exclusive" and "external" characteristics of general public resource. The performances are as follows:First is the limited range of benefits. The range of benefits is limited largely within the urban areas. Second is the high space intensity and use efficiency. Due to the high concentration of population and economic activity, the space intensity and utilization efficiency of urban public resources are higher than other public resources. Third is the derivative of urban public resources brought by urban space agglomerative effect of urban public resources. With the development of urbanization and concentration of population and resources, the existing urban public resources keep extending in quantity continuously, and new urban resources continue to be produced with urban economic and social development. What has not considered as goods value of urban public resources is gradually reflected. Fourth, there is crowding effect and spillover effects. Meanwhile, along with the accelerated process of urbanization, urban public resources presents new features. Based on years of practical work, the author summarizes these new features as "four characteristics and one theory", i.e. time nature, scope nature, cooperativity, additivity and "drift" theory of urban public resources. The time nature states that public resources is a concept within certain time. An article may be not public resource, but with the development of urbanization and the changing needs of the people, it gradually becomes a kind of valuable resource. The time nature indicates that we should see the resources with a dynamic vision when operating the public resources. The scope nature states that public resources is a concept of certain space. An article may be not valuable for a specific area of the city, but for the whole city it may have greater value, that is, the inconsistency of "cost—benefit" ratio between a particular region and a wider region. The scope nature indicates that the government should see the effectiveness of public resources operation on a larger spatial extent while operating the public resources. Cooperativity reflects that the value of public resources has a cooperative and integrative concept. The value of a single public resource may be not high, but the cooperation and integration of a variety of resources can reflect the overall value of resources. Cooperativity indicates that the government should be adept at the "short plate theory", play the use efficiency of funds, and enhance the overall effect of resources while operating the public resources. Additivity notes that the value arising from the public resources operation is not purely the promotion of its own value, but more importantly the driving force for the relative industry development. The experiences of "river changed the city" in San Antonio, United States, and the space reproduction of old industrial buildings in Barcelona have fully illustrated this point. The "drift" theory of urban public resources is the theoretical extension of the spillover effect of public resources, which has not been attached importance by the theory community, in particular in practical work. With years of practice, based on the conclusion of a series of spillover effect phenomenon of public resources, the author objectively puts forward the point of view—"spillover effect of urban public resources directly leads to the result that the particular owner of urban public resources - the city government-does not fully occupy or use the public resources", and describes the result as the "drift" of urban public resources, thus innovatively expounds and establishes the urban public resources drift theory. The author also points out that, with the development of urbanization, the scope of this kind of "drift" has expanded. The competitive city governments should be attached great importance to "drift" problem of public resources, create conditions for the "drift in" of public resources, and take measures to reduce "drift out" of public resources, thus achieve maximum operational efficiency of public resources.Third is about the extension of urban public resources. In the long term practice of urban public resources, under the influence of the traditional concepts, the urban public resources have been taken as a fixed concept of system. But in fact, with the development of urbanization, urban public resources are no longer simply a synonym of natural resources or tangible resources, but a very broad range of resource integration including both tangible and intangible resources. Modern urban public resources have been extended to a wider field including the conceptive resources, planning resources, vision resources and reputation resources etc. Resources which have been ignored or not recognized such as urban space, urban public infrastructure, urban environment, urban planning and urban color, etc., have been gradually coming into people’s vision, and changing into available resources. Even as urban waste which has been seen as the "burden" of governments can also change into resources which can be operated by the city governments. In short, the urban public resources are not limited, and as long as the city governments observe with the vision of development, the scope of urban public resources which can be operated is very broad.TwoThe research of positioning and vision of urban public resources solved the problems of the city governments’ operational objects and scope. However, to improve the operational efficiency of urban public resources, the issue who operate the urban public resources should be further studied, that is the operating subjects issue, as well as the institutional issue. From the perspective of theoretical research, on the issue of urban public resources operational system, three different modes were proposed by domestic and international theorists, including bureaucracy government-run, market management and multi-center governance. It seems impossible to improve operational efficiency relying on a single mode, for various modes have their advantages and disadvantages. In China, due to the changes in economic system, the unicity problem of operating subjects is also an important issue we are facing. Meanwhile, due to the absence of a clear positioning and effective external constraint to government, market and other organizations, inefficient operation of urban public resources and other issues have not been fundamentally resolved. In reality, problems such as the government’s "misplaced" and behavioral distortions, market players’ lack of participation, inadequate power of non-profit organizations, and the gaming and interests rent-seeking among city government departments also widely exist, affecting the improvement of operational efficiency of urban public resources. Taking consideration of these problems, in reference to "utility tunnel" of foreign cities, from the "failure" of single operation of government, market and non-profit organizations, on the basis of analyzing the efficiency border of government, market and non-profit organizations, the paper raises the main theoretical framework of classified public resources operation with multi-subjets, and points out that in order to build the public resources operating system with multi-subjets, we need to further identify the function and position of markets, non-profit organizations and public institutions, and coordinate interests relationship among different operating subjets according to different methods, institutional arrangements and encouraging policies. Meanwhile, in order to eliminate the "tragedy of the commons" in consumption of public resources, the government need to made institutional arrangements of time, qualifications and fee adjustment in consumption of public resources, to improve even maximize the use efficiency of public resources.ThreeTo improve the operational efficiency of urban public resources, we need to address the third aspect of the problem, that is how to operate urban public resources, mean the operating mechanism. In practice, how to take effective measures to mobilize the multiple operating subjects including governments, enterprises and non-profit organizations to participate in public resources operation and improve operational efficiency of public resources operation, has been the problem which local governments need to address urgently. In recent years, the city governments have achieved plenty of successful experience in the practice of public resources operation, but issues such as simplification, broad-brush changing and single operating means of urban public resources operation, lack of innovation in operating mechanism, "thousands of cities resembling" and impractical herd behavior etc. also have been exposed, which have caused low operational efficiency in different degrees, needing to innovate from operating modes, methods and means. According to different characteristics of different resources, the author proposes five different operating modes of public resources:the mode of government resources transfer, the mode of investment and financing management of public resources construction projects, the mode of resources replacement, the mode of government purchases of public services and goods, and the mode of authorization. Also, the author makes description of the characteristics and adoptable objects of each mode to a certain extent, and describes the operating mechanism and operational effects of each mode in detail with cases in practice. Taking into account of different development goals in cities of the different types and scale, as well as the complexity of urban public resources, the author believes that the choice of operating modes of urban public resources shoule depend on the different nature of resources and requirement for urban development and urban public service, adhere to the principle of maximizing the social benefits with the minimum investment, and take different operating ways to different public resources. In practice, various modes can be comprehensively used in project operation area, and new modes can also be innovated based on the basic modes.The paper has an obvious feature of empirical analysis, which can not only test the feasibility of the theory, but also better guide the practice. However, the paper also has many shortcomings, such as lack of in-depth study of theoretical system of urban public resources operation, which needs to be remedied in further research. We also need to attach great importance to and do further research for the performance evaluation of urban public resources operation. Additionally, in the process of urban economic and social development, as two sub-systems of urban resources, the urban public resources and market resources have certain differences in functioning field and operating mechanism. How to play the leading role of policies and conduct coordinated operation of urban public resources and market resources, to improve the overall efficiency of urban public resources in the development of urbanization, also need to be further explored in the future. |
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