Environmental Impacts of Natural Resource and <scp>FinTech</scp> in Oil‐Rich Economies: The Role of <scp>FinTech</scp> in Mitigating the Carbon Curse

ABSTRACT This research investigates the joint environmental impacts of natural resource rents and FinTech in oil‐rich economies. It addresses the carbon curse hypothesis and argues that the integration of FinTech can be a transformative force, improving energy and carbon intensities in these countries. The study employs the Panel Spatial Correlation Consistent Least‐Squares Dummy Variables (PSCC‐LSDV) and Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) with a panel dataset of 20 oil‐rich countries from 1991 to 2022. The findings reveal that natural resource dependence has a significant impact on CO 2 emissions and energy/carbon intensity, reinforcing the carbon curse resulting from excessive resource extraction. Furthermore, the study shows that different types of natural resource dependencies, excluding forest rents, lead to improved carbon/energy intensity in the energy mix, but only beyond a certain threshold of extreme resource extraction. The estimated turning point for this threshold is between 1.3824% and 9.2108% of GDP. This study provides the importance of proactive measures, including utilizing FinTech, to mitigate the environmental impact of excessive resource extraction, and highlights the significance of diversifying the energy mix and investing in renewable energy technologies to reduce carbon intensity and address the environmental consequences of natural resource reliance.