| Natural resource is the one of the major factors for the economic growth in the human history. However, since the 1950s we have paid more and more attention to the natural resource curse, which means that the economies with abundant natural resource, such as oil or diamonds, have tended to grow less rapidly than the natural-resource-scarce economies. So the relationship between the resource abundance and economic growth has become one of the core questions in the economic research. To address this question, we develop unique panel data, 286 Prefecture-level Cities'Data, employ techniques of the Spatial Econometrics. We test to see if there is a significant relationship between resource abundance and economic growth within one country over time.We can divide this study into two parts: Firstly, we make an explore spatial data analysis on the resource abundance and economic growth in China, which is used to identify the spatial disparity and spatial dependence of the resource abundance and economic performance in the selected Prefecture-level Cities, you can see in the chapter 3; secondly, we make a confirm spatial data analysis on the relationship between the resource abundance and economic growth, you can see in the chapter 4 and 5, the chapter 4 is for the relationship of the resource abundance and economic level, and the chapter 5 is for the relationship of the resource abundance and economic growth rate.We find that increases in resource abundance are associated with better economic growth within the selected cities over time. In fact, in the economic model we made we generate results that suggest a resource blessing. The major conclusion as follows:First, we find significant spatial disparity and dependence on the resource abundance in the selected cities. We divide the selected 286 cities into two types, 207 cities are belong to the natural-resource-scarce cities, 76 of them in the east region, 66 of them in the central region, and 65 of them in the western. And there are 79 natural-resource-abundant cities, 25 cities in the east region, 35 in the central region, and 19 in the western. So the regional resource difference is not significantly as we thought, especially we have not find the resources superiority in the central and western region.Second, we find significant spatial disparity and dependence on the economic growth level and rate in the selected cities. The cities in the central and western region are less developed than the cities in the east region. However, the cities in the central and western region have higher growth rate than the cities in the east region. There are 25 city clusters (High-High) on the economic level in the east region, most of them in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Circum-Bohai-Sea. And it's interesting to find that there are also 4 city clusters (High-High) on the economic level in the western region. On the city cluster (High-High) on the economic growth rate, you can find 9 in the central region (53%), 8 in the western region (47%), and zero in the east region.Third, we find the diversity of the relationship between the resource abundance and economic growth. We find the significant positive relationship between the resource abundance and economic growth level in the selected 286 cities through the spatial error model, which is the best choice for this test. And there are 8 major factors for this significant positive relationship, spatial dependence, initial economy status, investment, economic agglomeration, openness, government support, human capital and infrastructure development. We also find a positive relationship between the resource abundance and economic growth rate, but this correlation is not significant in the spatial lag model and spatial error model, which are the best choice for this test. And there are 6 major factors for this significant positive relationship, spatial dependence, initial economy status, investment, economic agglomeration, openness and government support.
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