The Role of Economic Complexity in Reducing the Impact of the Resource Curse: An Analysis of Resource Rents, Investments, and Corruption in BRICS-T Countries

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of natural resource rents (NRT) on economic growth in the BRICS countries and Türkiye sample during the period 1995–2021 and to examine the role of economic complexity (ECI) in this relationship. Empirical analysis consists of two complementary models has established using the panel quantile regression method. In Model I, economic growth is explained by the variables of natural resource rents, economic complexity, foreign direct investment, fixed capital investment, and corruption, while in Model II, the ECI x NRT interaction term is added to assess the effect of diversity in the production structure on resource dependence. The findings show that natural resource rents have a continuous and statistically significant negative effect on growth across all quantiles, supporting the resource curse hypothesis. The findings show that natural resource rents have a continuous and statistically significant negative effect on growth across all quantiles, supporting the resource curse hypothesis. In contrast, economic complexity, foreign direct investment, and fixed capital investment have positive effects, while corruption has negative effects. Model II results have shown that economic complexity does not reverse the negative impact of natural resource rents on growth, but it does mitigate this effect. The Kónya (2006) panel causality test has shown that there is a unidirectional causal relationship from natural resource rents to growth, while there is a predominantly bidirectional causal relationship between economic complexity and growth. Overall, the study shows that increasing economic complexity and strengthening institutional structures play a critical role in reducing the negative effects of resource dependency on growth and establishing a more sustainable growth path.