Background: Despite the abundance of natural resources (especially oil) in OPEC member countries, but for various reasons these countries do not have favourable economic growth. Many studies show that the relationship between these two variables is negative in these countries, which is referred to as the "natural resource curse". One of the main reasons for the negative relationship between the abundance of natural resources and economic growth is that financial markets in these countries are not deep enough. Various studies also show that oil-producing countries have a lower level of financial development than the global average. Therefore, it seems that with financial development and its deepening in these countries, the opportunity of having abundant natural resources in these countries and the resulting incomes can be used for the benefit of economic growth.
Aim: The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of natural resource exports on economic growth given the level of financial deepening of OPEC member countries (including Angola, Iran, Indonesia, Ecuador, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Kuwait, Gabon, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Algeria). Also, the study of the impact of population growth rate, trade openness, inflation, gross investment and government spending on economic growth, taking into account the threshold level for financial development, is another goal of this study.
Methodology: In this study, the effect of natural resource exports on the economic growth of OPEC member countries according to the level of financial development in the period 2000-2019 has been investigated using composite data and the panel threshold regression model.
The research is applied in terms of purpose and the research method is descriptive-analytical.
Findings: The results show that the threshold value for the financial development variable (internal credit of banks to the private sector) is equal to 4.19. The effect of abundance of natural resources (oil) on e