山西省煤炭资源开发与经济发展关系的实证研究

An Empirical Study of the Relationship between Coal Resource Development and Economic Growth in Shanxi Province

资源开发与经济发展之间的关系存在着不同的争论,传统经济学理论强调丰富的自然资源对区域经济增长的正面作用,而20世纪90年代兴起的资源诅咒论正好相反。本文以煤炭资源丰富的山西省为例,应用面板数据模型对煤炭资源开发与经济发展之间的关系进行了实证研究。结果表明,山西省煤炭资源开发对经济发展具有显著正向影响,其中大型煤炭企业资源开发对于地区经济增长具有促进作用,中小型煤炭企业资源开发对于地区经济增长无显著影响。因此,坚持以煤为基、多元发展,进一步巩固能源基地的战略地位,同时积极开展煤炭资源整合和企业兼并重组对于促进山西经济健康持续发展具有重要意义。

There is no definite conclusion about the relationship between resources development and economic growth.Traditional economic theories emphasize the positive role of abundant natural resources in regional economic development,while the resource curse theory holds an opposite view.Researchers holding resource curse consider that resources industry has a crowding effect on both manufacturing industry and human capital.It can also reduce innovation and weaken regional institution quality.Though these opinions were supported by most of empirical studies,there remains questionable about how to measure resource abundance.Resources abundance can be referred to as both single resource abundance and some resources combination abundance.Most previous studies took resources combination abundance to analyze the relationship between coal resource development and economic growth.It is worth noting that each type of resource has different ＂resource curse＂ effects if the resource curse really exists.Shanxi Province has abundant coal resources and the coal reservoir area accounts for nearly 40%.The coal industry is the pillar industry and the ＂resource curse＂ effect of other resources can be ignored.At the same time,coal enterprises with varying scales would have different effects on economic growth.First,compared with the small and middle-sized coal enterprises,the large coal enterprises have superiority on industry chain extension.Second,the profit distribution of large coal enterprises is more equitable and employees have more disposable income,which is in favor of regional economic growth.Taking Shanxi Province as an example,this study empirically analyzed the relationship between the coal resource development and the economic growth over the period 2001-2007 using the panel data model.The cross section has 9 cities.All the data come from Shanxi Statistical Yearbook and China Statistical Yearbook for Regional Economy.Results show that large coal enterprises have a positive effect on economic growth.Small and medium-sized coal enterprises do not have a significant effect on economic growth,which means that the positive effect and resource curse effect of resource development offset each other.The Wald test shows that there is significant correlation between the abundance of coal resources and the economic growth.So it is important to integrate resource enterprises and enlarge their scale for improving regional economic growth.Shanxi Province carried out integration of coal resources and M＆A and reorganization of coal enterprises since April 2009.Small coal enterprises whose annual output was below 300,000 tons were closed down.Though we have not enough data to examine the influence of this policy because the period is too short,it can be predicted that this policy would improve Shanxi province economic development.