Can internet development help break the resource curse? Evidence from China

The “resource curse” is a problem that plagues the economic growth of some countries and regions, including China. With the leap forward development of computer technology, the Internet industry has quickly become a new fulcrum for economic growth, which has also brought about the possibility of breaking the resource curse; thus, will Internet growth help break it? This paper conducts an empirical analysis on the sample data of 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China from 2006 to 2017. Through the scientific and rigorous analysis, the following conclusions are drawn. (1) There is indeed a resource curse problem in some provinces in China. (2) The development of the Internet can inhibit the curse of resources, and robustness test results further verify the reliability of this conclusion. (3) The development of the Internet mainly serves to alleviate the resource curse through financial development. (4) The effect of Internet development on the resource curse is heterogeneous and changes according to the degree of regional economic development and whether a resource curse is present in the examined region. Based on the above conclusions, this study proposes relevant policy recommendations to help localities break the shackles of the resource curse as soon as possible.