Examination of Resource Curse Hypothesis: Mineral Resources Exploitation and Economic Growth in Xinjiang Autonomous Region

The mineral resources exploitation stage and the economic growth rate are various in different regions of Xinjiang Autonomous region. Using the method of location quotient, this paper identifies and classifies the intensive regions of three types of mineral resources, known as coal, oil and natural gas, respectively. The intensive regions of economic growth were also identified, according to the rate of per capita GDP growth at prefecture, autonomous prefecture and city. The relationships between different mineral resources and economic growth are different, for example, the relationship between economic growth and coal resource is positive, while the relationship between economic growth and oil resource, or natural gas resource is negative. This study empirically examines the effects of natural resources on economic growth of Xinjiang. The results show that whilst natural resources have a positive impact on growth, and can make a negative impact on growth through the transmission channels, such as investment, manufacture, human capital, and scientific and technologic innovation. Moreover, it studies the transmission channels, that is, the effect of natural resources on the other explanatory variables, and calculates the indirect effect of natural resources on growth for each transmission channel, and comprehensive effects of natural resources on growth. The calculated result of comprehensive effects indicates that the positive direct effects of natural resources on growth are shown to outweigh the negative indirect effect of Xinjiang autonomous region.

The role of natural resources in financial expansion:evidence from Central Asia

Central Asian States(CAS)have diverse natural resources.This research aims to shed light on the finance–natural resource’s association in the context of CAS namely Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan,and Uzbekistan in 1996–2020 using the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag technique.It seeks to examine the research question,“What is the effect of natural resource wealth on the financial expansion(FE)of Central Asia?”The results demonstrated an inverted U-shaped association between financial growth and natural resource rents.It implies that natural resources are initially a“resource blessing”that later becomes a“resource curse.”Additionally,the effect of institutional quality(INQ)and human development(HD)on financial growth is examined.The results reveal that INQ and HD positively affect FE.Moreover,a bidirectional causal relationship exists between FE and INQ.Finally,all variables contribute to a long term FE.Based on these outcomes,the major policy recommendations are that the CAS authorities diversify their financial services and products and direct the proceeds from natural resource rents to effective invest-ments particularly in HD.In addition,the social and political infrastructures in CAS must be restructured to achieve a high-quality institutional environment,which is necessary to increase the role of the private sector.

A Study of Resource Curse Effect of Chinese Provinces Based on Human Developing Index

Traditional opinion considers that natural resources play an important positive role in economic development, while resource curse theory holds that natural resources usually obstruct economic increase. This debate needs further exploration. In most of empirical studies on resource curse theory, the economic development of an area is mainly evaluated by the Gross Domestic Product(GDP), however, the social and cultural contents of economic development are seldom considered. Thus, the Human Developing Index(HDI) was chosen to describe the comprehensive developing situation of an area in our study. Based on the panel data from the year of 2000 to 2011, the relationship between Human Developing Index and resource exploitation degree(RED) of 30 provinces in China(Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao were not included because of the restriction of data acquisition) was investigated by correlation coefficient analysis and regression analysis. We found that resource curse did exist over the entire country and its effect on 30 provinces were not exactly the same. According to the effects of resource curse, these provinces could be classified into four types: no resource curse provinces, slight resource curse provinces, severe resource curse provinces, and extreme resource curse provinces. Testing from two short time periods 2000–2005, and 2006–2011, the resource curse effect was not prominent. However, testing from the entire period of 2000–2011, the effect was obvious among each province.

Natural Resources in Economies＇ Status Transition from ＇Periphery＇ to ＇Center ＇

This paper divides the history of global trade since 1000AD into three periods using Rahl Prebisch＇s center-periphery pattern and summarizes the effects of resource trade on periphery economies during each period. However, this paper argues that the resource curse paradox does not justify isolation between developing and developed countries. On the contrary, developing countries should be encouraged to integrate into the existing center-periphery pattern and achieve economic growth through resource trade. This paper supplements the existing literature＇s analysis of resource endowment＇s role in global trade and offers recommendations for resource-rich developing countries to avoid the resource curse, identify a viable path to development, and achieve sustainable development by harnessing natural resources more productively.

Natural resource dependence, public education investment,and human capital accumulation

This paper examines the relationships between natural resource dependence, public education investment, and human capital accumulation. It addresses why the “blessing” of abundant natural resources often turns into a “curse” in many countries and regions, focusing on the crowding-out effect of natural resources on human capital. According to our empirical analysis of provincial panel data from China, natural resource dependence is significantly and negatively correlated with human capital accumulation. The crowding-out effect of natural resources on human capital exists only in the central and western regions of China. Our introduction of an interaction term for natural resource dependence and public education investment underscores the possibility of investing in public education to reduce the crowding-out effect of natural resource dependence on human capital. The government should utilize the income of the natural resource sector to increase investment in education to enhance local human capital.

Energy Abundance and China's Economic Growth: 2000–2014

Based on the interprovincial panel data of 2000–2014, this paper carries out an empirical analysis on the relationship between energy abundance and economic growth to test the theoretical hypothesis of ‘resource curse' and explore its transmission mechanism for China and its three regions. The results show that, at the national level, positive correlation is present between energy abundance and economic growth, proving that the ‘resource curse' phenomenon does not exist in China as a whole. Moreover, material capital input, human capital input and the level of opening to the outside world could promote economic growth, while technology innovation input may hinder economic growth. As seen by region, a positive correlation also exists between the energy abundance and economic growth in the eastern and western regions, and there is no ‘resource curse' phenomenon either. In all three regions, the human capital input could promote economic growth. Material capital input could promote economic growth in the eastern but hinder economic growth in the western region; the level of opening to the outside world could promote economic growth in the eastern region. It is known through further survey and analysis on the transmission mechanism of resource curse that, at the national level, material capital input, human capital input, and the level of opening to the outside world present positive correlation with energy abundance, indicating that energy development becomes an important transmission factor by strengthening material capital input and human capital input and raising the level of opening to the outside world. However, technology innovation input presents negative correlation with energy development. As seen by region, both the material capital input and human capital input present positive correlation with energy development strength in the three regions. Similar as the eastern region, the level of opening to the outside world presents positive correlation with energy industry development in the middle and western regions; however, the energy development presents negative correlation with technology input level in the western region.

Identification and analysis of underdeveloped resource-rich regions in China

This paper analyzes the existence of developmental views and compares the results of previous studies for underdeveloped regions. In view of the limitations of previous studies, this study details regional unit, expands index system, applies factor-analysis to structure index system, uses the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model to improve analytic hierarchy process, and identifies the economic developmental levels of 384 regions, including 4 municipalities, 333 cities at prefecture level, and 47 counties under the jurisdiction of province. The levels of the 47 counties are identified by dividing the rank of comprehensive values of more than 337 regions unit into five equal graduations and then matching the 47 counties with the five-graduation results. This study provides the distribution of resources-rich region in China qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of coal, oil gas and other 14 kinds of metal mineral resources. Finally, by matching the two parts of results, this study identifies the distribution of underdeveloped resource-rich regions (URRRs). URRRs are mainly distributed in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, He’nan, Shandong, Guangxi and Gansu provinces, which accounts for 78.57% of the total in China. To a certain degree, the result of this paper proves that “resources curse” existing in the national stratification plane in later 20th century still takes places in some cities in China, especially in the counties of these cities’ jurisdiction.

Analysis of Venezuela's oil-oriented economy: from the perspective of entropy

To investigate the efficiency and stability of Venezuela＇s oil-oriented economy, this paper applied entropy to the analysis.Based on this method, Venezuela＇s oil-centered industry, inefficient regulatory system, and insensitive response to external changes are recognized as an increase in the country＇s entropy. According to these facts, a dissipative structure model is constructed to analyze the efficiency and stability of the Venezuela＇s economic system. The results show that financial assistants（fund flow）, policy reform（policy flow）, and advanced technology（technology flow） can perform as negative entropy inflows（NEIFs）. These NEIFs will promote a series of influence and feedback reactions, which will contribute to recovering Venezuela＇s system efficiency and stability.

Can Lithium Energize Sustainable Development in Bolivia？ Institutional and Policy Challenges

A new extractive boom looms over Bolivia, home to roughly a third of the world＇s lithium reserves. Since previous mining booms have not put the country on a sustainable development path, this paper briefly outlines the initial results of a research on policy options to break away with the past. The paper first assesses the relationship between resource dependence and sustainable development by looking at the evolution of genuine savings in Bolivia and neighbouring, resource-rich countries. It then discusses Bolivia＇s potential position on the world＇s lithium market and examines the institutional variables that shape perceptions, expectations and policy options at national and local levels. Notwithstanding major technological challenges, the paper concludes that further research should shed light on how inclusive processes can be nurtured in rentier states, and how far specific institutional reforms can contribute to turning the looming lithium boom into sustainable outcomes in the Bolivian case.

Impact of natural resource mining on sustainable economic development:The role of education and green innovation in China

As the extraction and usage of natural resources continue to be a double-edged sword-supporting economic growth but deteriorating the environment-we study the impact of natural resource mining on sustainable economic development in the largest(PPP)economy-China.We use province-level data from 2001 to 2020 and employ econometric panel techniques,such as fixed effects,two-stage least squares,and a battery of robustness tests.We further explore the potential effects of education and green innovation in mitigating/exacerbating the role of natural resources in the Chinese provincial economy.The results show that:(1)Natural resource mining hurts sustainable development,verifying the“resource curse”effect.(2)Green innovation and education restrain the negative impact of resource mining on sustainable development,turning the curse into a blessing.(3)A regional heterogeneity is observed in the impact of resource mining on sustainable development,showing more significant effects in the Western and low-urbanized regions.(4)Green innovation and education can assuage the curse effect of natural resources into gospel effect.Policy implications and recommendations are proposed in light of the findings to promote sustainable economic development in China.

China and Natural Resource Curse in Developing Countries： Empirical Evidence from a Cross-country Study

China＇s rising demand for natural resources and its growing presence in many poor and resource-rich countries have been criticized for promoting neo-colonialism in the 21st century. Using panel data for 135 developing countries from 1995 to 2007, the present paper empirically evaluates the validity of such claims. Our findings do not support the resource curse thesis in the areas of industrialization and economic growth. Moreover, the effect of resources is conditional on the initial quality of political institutions in a country.