What Is the Mechanism of Resource Dependence and High-Quality Economic Development? An Empirical Test from China

For a long time, the resource curse had been widely concerned by researchers all over the world, especially in China. At present, China is in the transition stage from high-speed economic growth to high-quality development, and innovation and talents are important drivers. However, the existing research lacked an empirical test on resource curse and its transmission mechanism at the provincial level in China at this stage. In order to test the mechanism of transformation and upgrading of resource-based regions in the period of high-quality economic development, this study used the panel data of 30 provincial administrative regions of Chinese mainland (not including Tibet) from 2007 to 2017 to build a multi-step, multi-mediation model, and explored the direct and indirect impact mechanism of resource dependence on the high-quality economic development using the bootstrap method and generalized least square method. The key findings of this study were as follows: (1) The high-quality economic development level in the central and western provinces of China had been in a backward position compared with the eastern provinces. (2) There was a “resource curse” in the stage of high-quality economic development at the provincial level in China. (3) In terms of transmission mechanism, resource dependence had a negative impact on the high-quality economic development through the crowding-out effect of innovation investment and talents. Our conclusion provides a theoretical reference for other countries and regions to explore the relationship between resource dependence and high-quality economic development and may inform the economic development strategies by policymakers that wish to transform and upgrade the resource-based regional economy.