Retesting Of “Resources Curse” Question In Shaanxi Province

The existing literature about the discussion of whether the abundant natural resources may impede economic development and then cause the problem of resources curse is from the two perspectives of resource abundance index and resource dependence index. They believe that abundant natural resources would pose positive effects on economic development, but resource dependence would lead to “Resources Curse”.But this traditional opinion is different from the fact that we observed in Shaanxi Province So this study,based on the review of related literature and empirical observation on resources abundance, resources dependence and economic growth, comes up with a hypothesis that resources abundance and dependence of cities in Shaanxi province cannot lead to “Resources Course”. This study also conducts an empirical analysis of the relationship between natural resource and economic development by using the data of 10 cities in Shaanxi province for 15 years. In addition to this, we also analysis the mechanism of the inexistence of“Resources Course” through direct effects, transmission mechanism and overall effects. The main contents of this study are as follows:Firstly, No matter from the perspective of resources abundance or resources dependence,natural resources of cities in Shaanxi province have positive effects on economic development,and there is no so called “Resources Course” issue.Secondly, based on the analysis of transmission mechanism, although the utilization of resources in abundant areas has displacement effects towards tertiary industry, human capital input and manufacturing industry, the exploring and utilization of natural resources will stimulate the input of fixed assets, science and technology capital. This will help us find the specific way to avoid the negative effects of resource utilization and magnify its positive effects.Thirdly, on the basis of the assessment of the overall effects, we can know that the key of whether natural resources could promote the local economy is the result of gambling between its positive and negative effects. The “Resources Course” could not happen when the negative effects offset the positive effects completely. And vice versa. This means that there are conditions, which can be affected by composite factors, for “Resources Course” happening.We should never hold the cognition that abundant natural resources would definitely lead to“Resources Course”.