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资源科学 2011
On Regional difference and Drivers of Natural Resources Curse in China
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Abstract:
It is of great importance to quantify the degree of natural resources curse for making reasonable resources policies for different regions. We put forward a concept of the natural resources curse coefficient to characterize the deviation between economic development and natural resources endowment. With data of gross domestic production and primary energy production from China Statistical Yearbook, we calculated the natural resources curse coefficients for 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in Mainland China. In terms of the magnitude of the natural resources coefficient, we conceptually divided China into four types of the natural resources curse area. Regions with the natural resources curse coefficient below 1 are classified as no natural resources curse areas. Regions with the natural resources curse coefficient ranging from 1 to 2 are taken as marginal natural resources curse areas. Regions whose coefficient is greater than 2 and less than 4 mean that their resources endowment has not been converted into economic advantages, suffering serious natural resources curse. Regions of the coefficient exceeding 4 are faced with the problem of regional sustainable development, suggesting high-risk natural resources curse. Results demonstrate that 16 provinces mainly distributed in eastern China did not suffer natural resources curse, 6 provinces including Sichuan and Henan Provinces showed slight natural resources curse, and 5 provinces showed serious natural resources curse, e.g., Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province. The degree of natural resources curse in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Guizhou Province were much high, with suggesting a grim prospect of regional development. From the perspective of spatial distribution, natural resources curse is primarily encountered in the west and partially in the middle. The east rarely suffers natural resources curse. Guangdong, Sichuan, Xinjiang, and Shanxi, representing no natural resources curse area, marginal natural resources curse area, serious natural resources curse area, and high-risk natural resources curse area, respectively, were chosen to analyze the effects of natural resources curse. Changes in the natural resources curse coefficient over the period 1990-2007 generally demonstrate that the natural resources curse effect varied significantly over the four representative regions. An empirical analysis on high-risk natural resources curse areas and serious natural resources curse areas revealed internal and external drivers for natural resources curse, i.e., short-sighted natural resources-oriented development resulted in a degrading environment, overly relying on natural resources led to a single regional structure and unreasonable economic development, and poor investment environment, lack of external drivers of economic development, and the deviation of natural resources tax (fee) policies jointly contributed to twofold loss of regional na
