Natural Resources Abundance,institution Lock And Regional Economic Growth In China

Natural resources are a material base as well as an important condition for the regional economic development.Therefore,countries and regions with abundant energy,oil,minerals and other natural resources will possess resource superiority of economic development.However,since the 20 th century,some countries and regions with abundant natural resources have gotten in the trap of the resource curse;on the contrary,those areas with poor natural resources have achieved economic take-off.Through the research on this phenomenon,some scholars have proposed the hypothesis of “resource curse”,which means that the abundance of resources will hinder the regional economic growth.There are a lot of interpretation about the causes of “resource curse”,such as: “Dutch Disease”,crowding-out effect,etc.,but this paper argues that institution is the key factor,because natural resources will induce the rent-seeking behavior of corruption so as to weaken the institutional quality of a national or local under the particular arrangement of the property right issue related to natural resources.Hence,the weakening of the institution is the root cause for the“resource curse”.We China is rich in natural resources on the whole,but the interregional disparity is still very prominent and the economic development varies at different levels,the hardship of northeast region and the downturn in the west region have become a sort of poster child in the resource-based regions who have been stagnating in the market-oriented economy instead of keeping going steadily.From the perspective of institution,this dissertation makes a detailed and systematic study on the relationship between natural resources endowment,institution and economic growth.At the very start,a probability voting model is constructed and three meaningful conclusions are drawn as follows: Firstly,the institution was linked with economic growth,that is to say,bad institution will lead to a drop in economic output;Secondly,the shift in laborers to resource-based industry will hamstring economic growth,which ultimately gives rise to the occurrence of “Dutch Disease”;Thirdly,the most significantconclusion can be drawn that the effect of institution lock will cause the tragedy of“resource curse”.In other words,inferior quality of the institution will result in the“resource curse” which makes the phenomenon more serious if the institution is locked in a certain range,and only when the institution quality make a breakthrough at a certain critical value,the “resource curse” effect will be weakened.After that,the author constructs an econometric model and carries out an empirical test by using the data of our nation and other regions including the eastern region,the central region,the western region and the northeast region so as to verify the theoretical hypothesis.The main empirical conclusions can be drawn as follows: Firstly,the correlation between natural resources and our country's economic growth is negative,which means that the proposition of “resource curse “in our country is established,and the“resource curse” is a generally existing phenomenon in all regions,including the eastern region,the central region,the western region and the Northeast region.Secondly,institution plays a determinant role in the national “resource curse”,which can be manifested as follows: Low degree of market-based resource allocation,low degree of property diversification,low degree of market openness and high degree of corruption together can contribute to the low economic growth performance;and all of the decrease of market-based resource allocation,property diversification,market openness and the increase of corruption will worsen the adverse consequences of“resource curse”.Thirdly,there is heterogeneity existing in the function mechanism of“resource curse” for four major economic plates of the west,the east,and the northwest and central china.Fourthly,the “Dutch Disease” effect all exist in the west,the east and the central of China.However,it is not clear whether it exists in northeast China.This study has guiding significance for the coordinated regional economic development in our country.Especially within the context of supply-side structural reform in current times,three corresponding countermeasures,in response to making a big push for the institutional innovation to change the passive situation of institution locked in resource-intensive areas,are put forward: Firstly,we should push forwardthe construction of institution in resource-based cities.Secondly,we should streamline the market of resource-dependent production and perfect the property system.Thirdly,we should vigorously promote the corruption governance in resource-based areas.Taking into consideration all-mentioned above,the paper makes a conclusion about the research and a prediction of the follow-up study,and then lists some problems needed further studied: Firstly,the issue about the fluctuating prices of resource,the reform of resource tax system and the issues of “resource curse”.Secondly,the issue about a series of problems about institutional changes and “resource curse” under space state.Thirdly,the issue about the connections between institution,resource allocation efficiency and supply-side structural reform.