Study On The Problems Of China’s Reginal Resource Curse

Since the1980s， the research from most of the scholars at home and abroadshows that the abundant natural resources will not necessarily bring the fast economicgrowth. It is called the resource curse hypothesis which is one of the important contentof the resource curse transmission mechanism problem and is the key explaining it.Existing researches have not been enough to explain the root cause of resource curseemerging. Especially for developing countries like China， how does the naturalresource influence on economic growth? What impact and how much? The problemsare more complicated and diversified. Taking into account Chinese special situation，This paper analyses relative major proposition about the relation between the naturalresources and the regional economic growth. Based on the literature review at home andabroad in the past years， the thesis begins to take a theoretical analysis， consideringour country actual situation which is from the planned economy to the market economy.Then，it judges whether there is the possibility of the resource curse problem in ourcountry. It preliminary describes main problems of the resource curse which ishappening and have appeared. From evidences for the topics， the paper chooses threeperspectives which are the double-track system， human capital heterogeneity andregional technology innovation. In the end， the paper aims to switch the developmentmodel of resources development drive economic growth， and promote industriesupgrading and transformating，and put forward the corresponding countermeasures andSuggestions cracking the resource curse problems.The main research conclusion includes some points as the following:Firstly， from the theoretical analysis， this paper constructs a theoretical modelof3departments+3production elements. And it analyses the market economymechanism from the resource curse within an area， and considering the actualprocess of China’s reform， this article attempts to explain the influence abouteconomic reform policy to the resource curse problem in our country basing on theMSV (Murphy， Shleifer and Vishny，1992) local reform theoretical model， exceptfor the new economic geography theory elements. The results show that theprosperity of the resource developing not only has a change to the production factorflowing between departments which leads to the de-industrialization， but alsoinfluencing the production factor flowing across the region which decreases the welfare and come down the economic development in the abundant resource regions. As a mainbody of a national economy， the resources industry continues to attract the simpleproduction elements of the labor and capital， and at the same time rejects the higherlevel human capital，science technology，system elements，etc. As a result，it boomsin resource departments or the regions. But other industries， especially themanufacturing have a recession. And the regional economic development iscorresponding lagged. Then， the article suggests it is the critical key of the system thatdecreases the economic growth of abundant resources areas (i.e. the resource cursephenomenon)， especially for resources property’s pure right of people-ownership (lowefficiency principal-agent relationship of resources property right based on publicownership and the monopoly position of state-owned enterprise in resources industry.There have been the loss of human capital， industrial structure imbalangce andecological environment problems， which have increased greater obstacles for gettingrid of the "curse" dilemma.Secondly， from the perspective of the dual-track system from China’s economictransformation， this paper carries out why the natural resource-rich areas haverelatively slow economic growth. Because of the special structure in the proceeding， itis defined as the China’s resource curse. Considering the special conditions in China，course， double track will continue for a long time during the gradual the marketeconomy reform of， especially in production material field. So， we can’t put asidedouble track system， to study the resource curse from general economic level.Resultsreveal that the effect of the resource curse does exist， and the dual-track system is animportant factor that leads to it. The paper further confirms that economic growth iscointegrated with energy supply， or energy demand and the dual-track system the longterm， and the dual-track system frustrates economic growth more strongly inresource-rich areas than in others.Thirdly， taking accounting about the regional differences between human capitaldistribution and the difference from different human capital to economic growth， thispaper uses the heterogeneity human capital index. It bases on conditional distributionquantile regression model， than unconditional mean one. Evindences for the regionaleconomic growth， the peper investigates the influence of resources development andhuman capital on the regional economic growth， not roughly dividing into the eastern，central and western area. In this paper， the paper use quantile regression estimator tostudy the impact of energy development and the heterogeneity of human capital distribution on economic growth in China. And the paper further analyzes therelationship between energy development and the heterogeneity of human capitaldistribution by cointegration test. Results show that: low economic developing areas(such as Shanxi， Heilongjiang， Sichuan， Yunnan， Guizhou， Qinghai，Neimenggu， etc.) depend on the exploitation of natural resources have certainly， butother areas do not. That is different from the conditions that many authors have thoughtenergy development hinders the regional economic growth by the mean model， theso-called "resource curse" phenomenon. Different types of human capital differentlyeffect the economic growth， although the enhancement of whole education improvesthe economic growth obviously. In the short term resources development can extrudehigher education levels (like high school， college and above)， but in the long term itwill eventually promote human capital.Fourth， being based on the provincial panel data in China， this paper carries outthe effect of resources industrial agglomeration and regional innovation on economicgrowth and some factors on regional innovation. According to the characteristics ofexplained variables， the paper uses two methods of econometric analysis which are thedynamic panel data model and spatial panel data model. The results show thecorrelation between resources industrial agglomeration and economic growth isnegative. It means there is resources curse phenomenon in our country， except for theeastern. The improvement of regional innovative ability has remarkably promoted thenational economic growth， but it has differently appeared in the western， the centralregion and the eastern. The regional innovative ability has strong space overflowing andspace dependence in our country， and its intensity has decreased in turn in thewestern， the central region and the eastern. Finally the paper indicates resourcesindustrial agglomeration crowds out regional technology innovation.Finally， this paper presents some countermeasures and suggestions cracking theresource curse. The property reform of resources provides the security for establishingresources compensation system， and the establishing resources compensation system isthe way to the property reform of resources. They are in the same process. The articlesuggests our government should learn expriences about resources property right reformand compensation from developed market economy countries. It supports that ourgovernment should put forward the fair income distribution mechanism， coordinationmechanism and information communication mechanism， considering some actors inthe resources income distribution. To improve the economic growth of the abundant resource areas， it should straighten out the relationship the property and theconsistency between the central government and local government， and effectivelyimprove the resource tax system. Then， the price reform is the key not only tochanging the style of China economic growth， but also promoting the regionalharmoniously developing. The rich resource regions should establish and perfect themarket system of human capital property in order to smoothly realize human capitalproperty right trading. The government should optimize the income distribution systemof the human capital and imply a distribution according to the combination of one’swork and ability， introduce foreign talent and train local ones at the same time， payattention to job-transfer training and re-employing. With respect to upgrading andtransforming the industrial structure， the rich resource areas must seize the opportunityto international and domestic to undertake industrial transferring， give full play to theresources endowment advantage， use new technologies to extend resources industrychains. They should set up and perfect the technology innovation intermediary serviceplatform， and boost the innovation resources moving between its innovation subjectand factor owners， support the science technology for upgrading and transforming theindustrial structure.