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This paper aims to explore whether the over-reliance on political resources hampers corporate technological innovation and the role of environmental regulation in mitigating the adverse effect. A simplified theoretical framework is proposed to combine political ties, environmental regulations, and corporate innovation. Then, based on the data for listed private companies in China's heavy pollution industry, our empirical results show that political relations have negative impacts on both patent licensing and R&D investment, indicating the existence of a political resource curse in listed private companies in China's heavy pollution industry. The transmission mechanisms include mitigating market competition and inducing overinvestment, but increasing the rent-seeking motivation is not a channel through which political connections negatively affect corporate innovation. Further empirical analysis demonstrates that environmental regulations help eliminate the curse effect of political ties on technological innovation at the firm level in China, through increasing market competition and reducing overinvestment. The findings of this paper provide insights for optimizing environmental regulation policies, which are conducive to inducing technical innovation in politically connected enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic shocks, including shocks to commodity export prices, have often been related to civil conflict. However, the literature usually assumes that commodity prices have linear effects. In this paper, we hypothesize that negative and positive commodity export price shocks can have asymmetric effects: while negative shocks are likely to increase conflict, positive shocks can have a smaller conflict-reducing effect or even increase conflict. We test this hypothesis in a dataset for battle deaths during ongoing civil wars. Consistent with the hypothesis, negative price shocks increase battle deaths, but positive price shocks also have a positive effect. The positive effect is concentrated and becomes significant in countries with weak pre-conflict institutions that experience positive price shocks to fossil fuels. We conclude that a combination of institutional reforms, economic diversification, and price stabilization might reduce battle deaths in fuel-dependent countries with weak institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of resource endowment and corruption on countries' inbound foreign tourism. Specifically, we examine whether growing resource endowment crowds out tourism industry and role of corruption in this process. For this purpose, we utilize panel data of 140 countries from 1995 through 2018. We utilize estimation technique in analysis that takes care of possible endogeneity in the models. Our results show that resource endowment and corruption lead to a reduction in tourism demand. However, the prevailing high level of corruption with resource richness may provide life-blood to the tourism sector. On the basis of these results, we argue that the 'Dutch disease' hypothesis for tourism is valid for the tourism sector across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resource curse hypothesis postulates that countries endowed with and dependent on abundant natural resources tend to underperform in socioeconomic and development outcomes than those with fewer natural resources. Recently, a few studies argued that this curse also manifests in lower life satisfaction or happiness. Focusing on 31 net oil-exporting countries over the 2006–2019 period, we find no evidence that oil rents (and aggregate and disaggregate resource rents) have an adverse effect on happiness or subjective well-being. This contrasts with recent studies using a global sample. We further contribute to this debate by examining the channels of resource curse or blessing along with income, unemployment, inflation, levels of human development, and governance. We show that oil rent enhances the positive marginal effects of income on happiness. We find no evidence of this conditional effect through other channels. Being rich in oil or natural resources is not necessarily a curse on happiness, but, if any, it is a blessing through income-generating well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'paradox of the plenty' was coined to describe an often-found inverse relationship between royalty revenue and economic development. The main causal mechanism is thought to be a substitution effect whereby governments use royalty revenue to lower taxes instead of investing in activities that promote long-term economic growth. However, the occurrence of a 'natural resource curse' differs widely both for countries and subnational jurisdictions. Based on a dataset that traces 1,078 municipalities in Colombia from 2006 to 2017 and utilising a policy reform in 2012 that reduced royalty revenue for producer municipalities, we argue and find that municipal fiscal effort is higher when producer municipalities have more-efficient administrations. Our findings have important implications for the design of policy that allocates royalty revenue across subnational jurisdictions, in particular for developing countries where administrative efficiency tends to vary widely between local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research motivates to provide some implications about the role of energy innovation (EINN) in the resource curse hypothesis. The significance of EINN is crucial for mitigating the economic and environmental damage caused by the excessive consumption of natural resources (NR). The study aims to inspect the effect of energy consumption (EC), EINN, and NR on the economic growth (EG) of OECD countries from 1990 to 2015. The study emphasizes the importance of EINN by incorporating the EINN in the empirical framework of the resource curse hypothesis (RCH) and contributes to the current research on RCH. The study has used the various advanced econometrics techniques that are robust in controlling the cross-section dependence (CD) and slope heterogeneity of the panel data. The results clarify that EINN is a decisive factor in the analysis of the RCH. The positive association between EINN and EG suggests that EINN is beneficial in improving the EG of OECD countries. The results reveal the negative impact of NR on EG; however, with the inclusion of EINN, the absolute value of the NR's effect has declined significantly from −0.299% to −0.076% in the long run. The findings suggest that improvements in the EINN are crucial to increase the efficiency and productivity of NR and to avoid the RCH in the OECD countries. Thus, OECD countries should encourage energy innovation policies by promoting their application, so that replacement of traditional energy sources with new energy can be realized. The importance of energy innovation is expressed in the context of the natural resource curse hypothesis (RCH). Advanced panel data method CS-ARDL is used to control the panel cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity issues. Energy innovation plays a decisive role in alleviating the RCH in the OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Productivity growth has contributed significantly to boost living standards in many regions of the world. Concerns about certain emerging nations' dependence on unprocessed natural resource exports have led some analysts to be sceptical about the possibilities for structural reform in resource-rich countries. We hope to contribute to the research on the nexus between natural resources and growth by examining the impact of the dependence on resources on TFP growth in 91 developing countries from 1980 to 2019. Findings demonstrate unequivocally that TFP growth is lower in resource-rich emerging nations. The results are robust to several tests, including additional control variables and the partition of resource reliance between point-source and diffuse-source resources. Furthermore, the establishment and maintenance of democratic and economic institutions enable resource-rich countries to avoid the curse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, Peru has become a global piracy hotspot, eliciting surprise and concern among the international maritime community. Despite increased attention, Peru remains underexamined in maritime piracy research. In this case-study analysis, we brought together two research fields (e.g. maritime piracy and the natural resource curse) to investigate socio-historical factors that accounted for long-term trends in Peruvian piracy. The maritime piracy literature, which largely examines famous sites off the coasts of Africa and southern Asia, identifies several determinants, including state weakness, economic opportunity, and geography. Because Peru is a heavily extraction-dependent state, we also examined mechanisms of the natural resource curse. Considerable overlap in explanatory factors exist. While we found several determinants identified in the maritime piracy literature present in the Peru case, such as state weakness and social conflict, analyses also indicated that mechanisms of the natural resource curse, particularly commodity price volatility and rent seeking, are also positively related to piratical activity. Overall, our findings extend the maritime piracy and natural resource curse literatures and suggest that counter-piracy efforts in Peru critically examine extractive policies for latent effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of large-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa on local livelihoods is controversial. Little consensus exists about whether mining is a 'blessing' or a 'curse' for affected communities. This article estimates the impact of mine proximity on local socioeconomic outcomes. It does so by linking georeferenced survey data to mine locations, to determine whether living near a mine results in systematically better or worse scores on measures of lived poverty, development infrastructure and access to basic household services. The data (from Afrobarometer Round 6) spans 19 countries, 148 large-scale mines, and 4,796 households. The analysis shows that the average effects of proximity to a mine are modest compared with cross-national and urban-rural differences in living conditions. Mining is not consistently a 'blessing' or a 'curse' for affected local communities in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper makes an original contribution to knowledge in three ways. First, through interviews with experts in Qatar, we uncover the role major sports events seek to play in the development of Qatar's indigenous population. Our findings show that, alongside seeking to achieve various international objectives, these events are also intended to have a positive impact on the state's human capital development at home. Specifically, in this regard, there is a desire to use sports events to address issues related to the health of Qataris, and to try to engage citizens in a process of maturity, whereby they are encouraged to confront the outside world, and become less reliant on the state. Second, our paper adds to understanding the role of aspirations, motivation and ambition in the human capital development process, which, as we show, is an area to which a growing literature is devoted. Third, the paper is the first academic analysis to provide insight into how sports events can be used in an attempt to overcome the 'resource curse', referring to the evidential long-term human capital development deficiencies that are commonly experienced by natural resource-rich states across the Middle East, Asia and Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of state-business relations (SBR) and institutional settings on government decisions to foster innovation in developing countries. It differentiates between informal SBR-based cronyism and formal SBR-based lobbying and how they could influence a government's decision to implement policies fostering innovation. After a theoretical discussion on the available literature, a theoretical model building on and complementing the Aghion and Howitt (2009) growth model with institutions is introduced. The model provides predictions on which institutional settings induce the government to support innovation, rather than technology imitation/transfer strategies. Using the random-effects regression model, the empirical results support some of the model's predictions. This includes the negative effect of cronyism and the positive effect of public frustration from cronyism on choosing the innovation strategy. A positive effect also results from a situation where natural resources-caused economic growth is matched by institutional reform that curbs cronyism and mitigates the resource curse. A short discussion on some case studies follows before the paper ends with a conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between resource rents and economic growth is one of the key issues that have attracted the attention of both policy-makers and scholars. Several attempts have been made regarding the association, yet the literature holds the gap. The present research intends to explore the connection between natural resource volatility and economic performance in seven (G-7) countries. For the time frame from 1990 to 2020, this study also examines the role of technological innovation (TI), human capital (HCI), and research and development budget for renewable energy (RER&D). Empirical results asserted that the variables under study are cointegrated. Employing a novel non-parametric panel quantile method of moments regression and quantile-on-quantile, the outcomes propose that natural resources volatility significantly affects EP throughout the quantiles. This negative impact is valid for the aggregate panel of countries and cross-sections. Natural resource volatility supports the resource curse hypothesis for G7 economies. On the other hand, HCI and TI are significant economic performance factors. From lower to higher quantiles, the magnitude and significance levels increase. The variable for cleaner energy investment is also positively related to economic performance yet insignificant in the higher quantile. The study recommends channeling natural resource rents to effectively and fully transfer the full potential of natural resources to other real sectors of the economy to fully utilize the benefit from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mongolia, a resource-rich country with a high level of corruption, is on the gray list of the Financial Action Task Force. However, the effects of natural resources on budget transparency in Mongolia have not been empirically studied. Therefore, this study applied the natural resource curse theory to examine the effects of natural resource abundance on budget transparency. We used the local government data from 2011 to 2016 to determine whether such a curse exists in Mongolia. Our findings confirmed the natural resource curse theory, showing that the mining sector's higher GDP is negatively related to budget transparency. However, as education increased, the effects of GDP from the mining sector on budget transparency showed a positive relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the asymmetric impact of oil price fluctuations on non-performing loans (NPLs) between 2009-Q1 and 2020-Q1 for 28 banks in Kazakhstan. Dynamic panel threshold analysis revealed an initial increase of oil prices, improving creditworthiness, thereby reducing NPLs; however, after cross a certain threshold, the relationship was shown to become the opposite. This finding is in line with the Ricardian curse and resource windfall. The results suggest that optimal borrowings and lending should be actively monitored to mitigate potential liquidity problems of banks and consequently NPLs. The practical implications and policy recommendation of which are important to policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study interrogates the impacts of mining at Connemara Gold Mine on the environment and rural livelihoods for surrounding communities the mine. While we acknowledge that mining is a very lucrative business and one of the major drivers of the Zimbabwean economy, we argue that most of the benefits of mining tend to be enjoyed elsewhere and not by host communities. We roped in the Treadmill of Production and the Resource Curse theories to demonstrate the interplay between capitalism, the environment and local ordinary people's livelihoods around Connemara mine. Data were collected through interviews with local community residents, leaders and stakeholder organizations with interests in mining who were selected through purposive and snowballing techniques. We collected data over a period of 13 weeks, interviewing twenty-five respondents in the process and undertaking a series of transect walks across the mined site and its adjacent surroundings. We discovered that mining caused extensive environmental destruction, creating artificial hills and open pits as well as promoting massive soil erosion, contaminating water and land with dangerous chemicals making them unusable for productive purposes. As a result, we conclude that mining at the site did not generate wealth for the local populace but for the mine owners and the state while impoverishing the host communities, destroying their livelihoods in doing so. We conclude by arguing that mining at Connemara is a perfect example of how the Treadmill of Production works and an evident testimony of the Resource Curse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to bridge part of the gap that exists between the resource curse literature and economic historical research on natural resources by analysing four resource-abundant countries. The study proposes that at the sectoral level, the determinants of growth in resource-based industries were mostly similar in the late 19th and late 20th centuries. However, we also argue that the relative contribution of natural resources to economic growth might have been declining during the late twentieth century. The evidence comes from an analysis of the forestry sector in Finland and Sweden between 1860 and 1910 and the palm oil industry in Indonesia and Malaysia between 1970 and 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resource curse literature suggests that, in fragile states dependent on natural resource rents, structures of public accountability are weak because of an elite-controlled political economy indifferent to social and ecological interests. We examine accountability claims made by non-domestic proxy actors, holding governments and corporations accountable on behalf of communities adversely affected by natural resources extraction. This conceptualization is suggested by proxy-led transnational mobilization against mining-related damage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We identify an 'hourglass' structure of proxy actor engagement with affected communities: In a first phase, proxies rely on public mechanisms to define standards remotely. In a second phase, proxies 'narrow' the gap by seeking compliance information from affected communities. However, in a third phase, this gap 'widens' again when proxies remotely seek sanctions against responsible actors. We discuss the applicability of this heuristic framework to proxy-led accountability practices in other natural resource-dependent rentier states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central issue in the scholarly literature on the Latin American Pink Tide is the renewal of state-led development, or neo-developmentalism, and dependence on primary resources or the so-called resource curse. In this article, we consider the question of neo-developmentalism during the Pink Tide and state capacity, analyzing whether the three 'radical' Pink Tide governments in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia were able to achieve their respective neo-developmental political objectives. We employ a comparative approach building on the theory of 'broadened embedded autonomy' as conceptualized by Peter Evans. We argue that while reliance on resource extraction posed a challenge for the construction of state capacity for Pink Tide governments, national-level differences help explain why some governments were relatively more successful than others at inducing neo-developmentalism. A comparative approach focused on the politics of state-society thus provides a promising analytical framework for interpreting variations across cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While state authorities eyed lithium as a new development frontier with CODELCO as an important actor, the company became responsible for at least three episodes - in 2011, 2018, and 2022 - of mass contamination in Ventanas and two neighboring towns, Quintero and Puchuncaví, both of which are host to other polluting industries. Under President Bachelet's second government, the state renegotiated exploitation contracts to establish clauses that might advance the recommendations of the expert commission advising on lithium policy. : As lithium drives renewed promises of natural resource-based development, Chile confronts the power of private corporations eager to cash in on a global green transition However, while Ponce Lerou and other executives formally left the company after the settlement, to the astonishment of government officials and the public, SQM soon hired the same individuals as external strategic advisors, initially with plans to grant them offices in the company's headquarters. [Extracted from the article]

The debate on the natural resource curse hypothesis has attracted the attention of policy makers and policy analysts for the past few decades. However, the empirical findings on such a hypothesis have proven inconclusive. Our study investigates the threshold effects of natural resource dependence on economic growth in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) using both aggregate and disaggregate data from 1990 to 2019 by employing a threshold effect model. The results indicate a double threshold effect of natural resource rent on economic growth. In particular, below 6% of GDP, aggregate natural resource rent exerts a significant negative effect on economic growth. However, as the rents increase above 6% to about 15% of GDP its negative effect on economic growth significantly reduces. In addition, beyond 15% of GDP natural resource rent exhibit a substantial significant positive impact on economic growth. Further, the disaggregated data reveal that forest rents exhibit a strong weighty adverse effect on economic growth at all levels of thresholds. The study recommends that governments within the sub-region need to put in policies to ensure that natural resources generate at least 15% of GDP annually to promote growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing booms and busts in Ireland and Spain were among the most striking episodes of the Eurozone crisis. While asset price inflation and financialization of housing was gathering pace across the developed world, these two 'most different' cases converged on the same outcome as the most extreme forms of construction-based bubbles. The key contributions of this paper are threefold. Firstly, we show how cheap credit can be understood as analogous to a natural resource such as oil: resource abundance generates a 'paradox of plenty' whereby an asset becomes a liability. Secondly, we open the black box of political pathways through which this happens, expanding our understanding of how perverse outcomes are produced. Thirdly, we account for why Spain and Ireland were more susceptible to extreme outcomes than other European countries, thereby extending our understanding of asymmetries in the political economy of the Eurozone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains the specific location of Islamic State attacks in Syria and Iraq? We consider how both ethnic and economic factors shape the group's decision-making about where to attack. We explore these competing motivations using spatial analysis of the Islamic State's individual acts of violence from 2013–2017. We find that both areas with ethnic heterogeneity and valuable economic rents are associated with more individual Islamic State violent events. By examing the micro-foundations of the Islamic State's conflict decisions, we provide further nuance to understanding the strategic logic of rebel groups during wartime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resource curse literature argues that oil production reshapes the fiscal contract between citizens and the state: politicians become less responsive to citizen taxpayers and more likely to use public revenues for their own benefit. This paper examines whether and how bureaucrats influence this breakdown of the fiscal contract. Analysing results of a survey experiment conducted with government employees in Ghana and Uganda, we find that, when primed to think about oil revenue, bureaucrats do not generally express attitudes indicating that they contribute to the resource curse. Although oil revenue does lead some Ghanaian bureaucrats to become less interested in responding to taxpayers, this finding does not operate as predicted, i.e. by bureaucrats expressing greater partiality towards the ruling elite. Instead, we attribute this outcome to 'disgruntled employees' – political outsiders with low salaries – who, unlikely to benefit from oil revenue, become disaffected from citizen service. The results shed new light on processes through which resource extraction changes state institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource curse mineral driven conflicts have taken a major toll in the African continent. Observably, most of the studies which have been conducted do not address major aspects such as the international influence coming from economically powerful countries who rely heavily on Africa's mineral resources for their economic feed. It is in this context that the current research article is driven by this scholarly major gap that China (second global biggest economy) is deployed as a test case to explore her involvements in the mineral resources curse and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This article answers a research question on whether international major influencers such as China do have a role to play on resource curse mineral driven incessant conflicts in Africa. Equally, this article argues that China's Sicomines deal secured with DRC is at the forefront of China's big indirect role in the continued resource curse mineral driven conflict in the DRC's Eastern region driven by mineral resource wealth. This argument is achieved methodologically by the deployment of document analysis and content analysis of the prevailing scholarly conversation throughout Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the political economy theory of the resource curse of the Iranian economy over the period 1984–2017. We find that natural resources dependence is harmful to economic development only if rent seeking activities exceed a minimum threshold. Empirical findings – based on Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling approach – validate the hypothesis that institutions are decisive for the resource curse. According to our estimates, since 2012, rent seeking has surpassed this threshold, therefore, the 'resource curse' applies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing literature on natural resources, little is known about the effect of natural resources on industrialization, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by assessing how natural ressources affect the industrialization process in 27 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000–2016. To carry out our investigation, we used several estimation methods including Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed Effect (FE) and Generalized Moments Methods (GMM). The results show that there is a negative relationship between natural resource dependence and industrialization. A U-shaped relationship between natural resource dependence and industrialization is established. Furthermore, the disaggregation of natural resource rents shows that while oil rent, gas rent and mineral rent hamper the industrialization process, the effect of forest rent and coal rent on the industrialization is positive. Finally, we show that governance plays an important role in mitigating the negative impact of natural resources on industrialization. Thus, governance can be an effective way to break the resource curse in sub-Saharan African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greater deployment of non-hydropower renewable energy sources in Central Asia appears to be a rational solution to energy security in the region. However, renewable energy diffusion in Central Asia is at an incipient stage. Moreover, the utilization of renewable energy sources varies substantially across the region. Whereas fossil fuel-rich, more developed Central Asian economies pursue the deployment of non-hydropower renewable energy sources, water-rich, lower-income countries retain their reliance on large-scale hydropower. This article argues that wider deployment of non-hydropower renewable energy sources is critical for Central Asian countries' sustainability and attempts to explain the double paradox of plenty through the specifics of institutional environments in energy-poor and rent-dependent Central Asian economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analysed political aspects of the resource curse in selected African states. The paper drew from the fact that the African region has extensive (untapped) natural resources deposits that, if utilised, can promote sustainable economic development. But despite the presence of these natural resources, the African region is poverty-stricken and still under-developed. Literature identified politics as among the factors that affect Africa's capacity to invest revenue from natural resources. Studies showed that there are close links between politics and the management of extractives. The study employed the PMG (ARDL) and the FMOLS for the period 1995–2016. Results from the study showed a positive relationship between efficient functioning of government and resource rents. There is also evidence for causality running from efficient functioning of government to resource rents and not vice versa. This shows that government performance is crucial for better performance in the natural resource extraction sector. Based on the findings, this study recommends that governments in African countries should improve on governance and the way the public sector institutions function. Harnessing the weak and politically fragile public institutions is important in order to kick start markets. The effective functioning of government institutions can be strengthened by eliminating corruption, stabilising property rights and investing in fiscal capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional quality has both short-term and long-term impacts on economic growth. Its short-term impact comes from the quality of institutions ex ante while its long-term impact comes from the quality of institutions ex post. Ex post institutions are shaped by the direct impact of resource dependence on regime type. The goal of this paper is to identify the components of institutional quality that has the most impact on per capita growth in resource-rich developing countries. I investigate the relationship between resource wealth and institutions and their impact on per capita growth by deconstructing institutional quality in a panel of 58 developing countries in the period between 1996 and 2014. I ask if the effect of resource wealth on growth depends on the quality of institutions, then which underlying component(s) of institutional quality have the most effect on this relationship? Results show that voice and accountability have the most influence in shaping institutional quality in a sample of developing countries, and there is evidence that it has the most relevant and significant effect on growth compared to other components of institutional quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the best of our knowledge, none of the studies in this area has accounted for China's increased role in the natural resource trade since her accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 and how that impacts on the relationship between resource revenues and non-resource tax revenues. Introduction The literature on the natural resource curse is well known - countries with abundant natural resources fail to transform that advantage into favourable development outcomes (see Badeeb, Lean, and Clark ([10]) for a recent review, and Ross ([63]) for an earlier review). More so, our key argument is the fact that any potential stimulus to the non-resource sector which impacts on non-resource revenues is most likely through leveraging on positive shocks to resource revenues. While maximizing revenues from the resource sector is desirable, its impact on the non-resource sector, and therefore non-resource revenues, becomes even more important with respect to securing a broad and sustainable domestic revenue base. [Extracted from the article]

This paper documents the deleterious effects of petroleum extractive activities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, with a special focus on HIV infection. It argues against the hegemonizing claims of the "resource curse" thesis and deploys the framework of "accumulation by dispossession" to explain the crisis of development associated with the country's petroleum economy. The paper couches the challenges of economic survival in the petroleum resource-rich region on a predatory alliance between the extractive transnational corporations (TNCs) and the domestic compradors. It highlights the implications of extractive activities in the region for HIV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together the discussions on international resource trade and immigration. Following Wenar's analysis of the resource curse, the aim is to challenge the conventional view on immigration that asserts the right of states to have discretionary control over these policies. The paper shows that more liberal immigration is required as an additional remedial policy to persons harmed in unjust trade. The right to self-determination and territorial rights, which are used as the basis for the exclusion of immigrants, are in the context of this analysis constrained by both attentiveness to harm and the charge of inconsistency. Both rights, which are protected domestically, are violated by the unjust 'might makes right' trade rule in the international context, causing harm to people in resource exporting countries. This inconsistency presents a challenge to the moral plausibility of the conventional view in the context of the resource trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a panel dataset of 95 countries from 1980 to 2014, we find that natural resource rents have a causal negative effect on labour shares. This effect is robust to estimation methods and control variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A climate-positive COVID-19 recovery can accelerate the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Yet, current assessments of recovery stimulus programs suggest that the most fossil fuel producers are more likely to take on a 'dirty' recovery path out of the pandemic than a 'green' one. Such a path will postpone climate action and entrench fossil fuel dependence. To change course, fossil fuel producers have to get on board of a 'green recovery'. For this, cooperative international efforts mobilizing both fossil fuel consumers and producers need to promote 'just transition' policies that increase support for a green shift among fossil fuel companies and producing countries, including fossil fuel exporters. In turn, fossil fuel producers should leverage the opportunity of stimulus packages to reduce their fossil fuel production dependence and help accelerate an energy transition through supply-side measures. A combination of 'green' investments and 'just' transition reforms could help enroll fossil fuel producers into a climate-friendly post-COVID recovery. Fossil fuel producers have mostly promoted 'dirty' rather than 'green' recovery paths from the COVID-19 pandemic A green recovery agenda requires a 'just' transition component to entice and support fossil fuel producers Both demand and supply-side strategies are required to advance a 'just transition' agenda throughout the post-COVID 19 recovery The post-COVID-19 transition requires energy policies responding to the constraints of consumer and producer countries to address climate and equity challenges [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of oil resources endowment, measured by proven reserves and oil rents, on the economic growth in the presence of quality of governance factors. To address this issue, we first summarize the previous research by reviewing, from the economic literature, the main explanations of what many regard as 'curse' of petroleum resource and, in a larger context, evoke the different relationships between natural resources and economic growth. Then, a panel data econometric model is fitted to a dataset consisting of 40 countries and sampled over a period of 17 years. The empirical results confirm, on one hand, the main hypothesis that proven oil resources negatively explain the economic growth. On the other hand, it is shown that oils rents are slightly positively correlated to the economic growth. The manipulation of the set of explanatory variables in the model does not change this overall negative correlation between growth and petroleum endowment, thus proving the counter-intuitive assumption that oil wealth limits the opportunities for economic growth. The results also confirm the old hypothesis that natural resources are negatively correlated to the countries' GDP through the quality of their economic and financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study brings natural resources, and tourism into the energy-growth, and environment nexus using the STIRPAT model for 88 BRI countries over 1995–2015. Considering the endogeneity, cross-sectional dependence, and slope homogeneity, this study employed dynamic GMM and D&K estimators for three distinct structural equations. For the CO2 equation, the empirical outcomes supported the EKC, energy lead emission, natural resource-based CO2 emissions, and tourism-led CO2 emissions, and on the other hand, renewable energy helps to curb environmental degradation. For the GDP equation, the role of energy, CO2 emissions, tourism development, and renewable energy is positive and contributes significantly to economic growth. The impact of natural resources is negative and significant, thus postulating the "resource curse phenomenon" in BRI countries. For the energy equation, CO2, GDP, and natural resources are escalating energy consumption; while, renewable energy is negatively affecting energy, which indicates that growth in renewable energy tends to discourage the consumption of fossil fuel-based energy in the BRI countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade resource curse scholars have argued widely that oil-rich countries are more likely to initiate armed disputes with their neighbors. In this essay, we argue that the evidence points toward oil peace, not conflict, as a function of both domestic and international factors. We draw on analyses of our own dataset and two from past studies to show that the data is more supportive of petro-peace than of petro-aggression. We also demonstrate that the Iran–Iraq War is singularly responsible for what was believed to have been a radical-petro-aggression effect globally. We conclude that, to the extent that evidence suggests a trend, it is more likely for a Pax Petrolica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In efforts to explain the resource curse, researchers have examined the connection between the resource curse and national corruption. Because being relatively rich in natural resources may encourage rent-seeking behavior, some have speculated that the root cause of the curse might be corruption rather than an abundance of natural resources. The evidence is mixed. This article turns the question around and asks, given political, cultural, institutional, and economic influences, whether there is a statistical relationship between resource abundance and corruption. The focus is on the interaction of autocratic governance and resource abundance. The results suggest that the rents on natural resources alone are not a strong cause of corruption. There is evidence that natural resources combined with autocratic governance influences corruption but, after controlling for other influences the relationship is not strong and the results are sensitive to the way that corruption is operationalized. Meanwhile, several non-resource variables including, larger government, more competition, political stability, and business freedom do seem to reduce national corruption. The study is based on 125 nations using average 2012–2016 variable values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the natural resource curse hypothesize on a panel of 111 countries over the period 1996–2015. Using a range of heterogeneous panel cointegration techniques, it tests the resource curse hypothesis while allowing for cross-section heterogeneity. Specifically, it employs common correlated effects mean group, cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL), and cross-sectionally augmented distributed lag (CS-DL) techniques. It begins the analysis with a conventional method in which the average value of variables is considered. The conventional approach fails to provide any clear evidence. The CCEMG estimator yields limited evidence supporting the resource curse in the long-run. However, CS-DL and CS-ARDL results show strong evidence for resources as a curse in the short-run, however, the evidence is weak in suggesting any long-run influence of resource-dependence on economic growth. Furthermore, CS-ARDL-based results also show that the effects work with a lag. Overall, we find support for the resource curse hypothesis, suggesting that resource-rich economies tend to grow at a slower rate in comparison to the resource-deprived ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region, the recent shale gas boom profoundly reshaped communities, local institutions, and living circumstances for many residents. We focus on one particular local institution – the public school – to investigate the relationship between unconventional gas development and education funding. Using geographic information systems software, we identify unconventional drilling activity between 2007 and 2015 and link unconventional drilling point data with district-level state and federal data. We then use techniques from the matching literature to explore the relationship between unconventional drilling and the distribution of educational resources and opportunities. Evidence from our analysis suggests that, on average, districts experiencing unconventional drilling had lower per pupil revenues, locally-raised per pupil funding for schools, per pupil income, and per pupil property wealth than very similar districts that did not experience unconventional drilling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the original natural resource curse study conducted by Sachs and Warner to investigate the relationship between natural resource dependence and per capita growth in recent data consisting of 68 developing countries that includes 14 Middle East & North Africa (MENA) and 6 Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries between 1994–2014. Using a cross-country data and modeling we find robust evidence of a negative association between per capita growth and natural resource dependence. This negative affect is especially prominent in oil-rich MENA countries. The presence of a natural resource curse presents challenges to policymakers especially in countries who have been taking measures to diversify their income-base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the asymmetric effect of oil and gas resource rent on economic growth of Ghana for the period 2010 to 2019, dwelling on the hypothesis that natural resources extraction has double-edge effect on economic growth. Using Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model as estimation strategy, we find that oil and gas resource rent affect economic growth asymmetrically. Specifically, our NARDL estimates suggest that oil resource rent promotes economic growth significantly, providing empirical evidence in support of the resource blessing hypothesis. However, gas resource rent exerts a significant adverse effect on economic growth, providing empirical evidence to support the resource curse hypothesis. Our findings point to the need for policies that promote the expansion of oil resources firms than gas resource firms in the short run while long term policies should target setting up both oil and gas resource firms in developing countries, especially countries with similar socioeconomic and demographic setting like Ghana. Finally, government and monetary authorities should promote policies that attract foreign direct investment inflow in Ghana while taming inflation and lending rate towards growth enhancing targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of Kazakhstan's wealth hinges on oil rents, and the overall performance of the economy is closely linked to petroleum's price fluctuations. This study asks (1) why the institution of private ownership of oil proceeds has not led to a positive transformation of patron–client relations embedded in the country's energy sector, thus challenging the relevance of the 'private ownership' narrative, and (2) why the collapse in the price of oil did not affect the stability and essential character of the regime in power. To answer these questions, the article examines two case studies: the privatization of the oil sector in the 1990s, and the post-2014 oil crisis. Thus the article problematizes important theories on oil-sector privatization and contributes to recent work on regime stability as it pertains to the resource curse. The analysis of the constitutive impact of oil wealth on Kazakh politics generates wider insights on the links between the power of informal networks and regime stability in petrostates through boom and bust cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shortly after oil production commenced in 2004, Timor-Leste became one of the most oil dependent countries in the world. The purpose of this piece is to assess whether Timor-Leste has been suffering from the typical political and economic ailments associated with the 'resource curse' hypothesis. The study critically analyses available evidence with reference to some of the common manifestations of the resource curse: conflict, rent-seeking behavior, Dutch disease and revenue volatility. It confirms that all of the examined mechanisms of the resource curse are present in Timor-Leste to varying degrees. This does not necessarily point to a causal relationship between mineral dependence and these socio-economic problems. Many of these problems, common amongst developing countries, are attributed to a wide array of historical and political factors (which are likely to be associated with colonialism and inherited weak governance structures). While it might be tempting to attribute these problems to mineral discoveries and related income shocks, careful examination suggests that the extractive sector exacerbates pre-existing problems than necessarily causes them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the role of private sector development in overcoming the challenges of the resource curse. It identifies the developmental factors in the private sector in natural resource dependent countries by adapting a dynamic flexible adjustment model. Its empirical results are based on panel data from 110 natural resource producers in developed, developing, and emerging countries during the period 1990–2017. The findings show that natural resource rents can foster private sector development, and the speed of adjustment towards the target level of development is faster in oil and gas exporting countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics and accountability are strong indices for measuring commitment to economic development. Development continues to elude developing countries, particularly Nigeria mainly because of corruption, unethical behavior, and accountability crisis in governance. This article intends to analyze governance crises in developing countries, focusing on Nigeria case, in order to understand their natures, and also utilizes resource curse, defective federalism, anomie, low risk-high benefits theories, and field data to provide explanations to governance crises. The findings reveal that; nepotism, societal pressures, low remuneration, seeming lack of punishments for involving in corruption among others are the causes of governance crises in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a model of international trade with heterogeneous firms and endowment differences across countries to explore the adjustment of production and trade patterns to exogenous shocks, such as massive endowment changes. I show that a windfall of resources which can be used for production has a controversial effect on the economy. On the one hand, it leads to a lower productivity level in the economy, which is a known characteristic of the Dutch disease. On the other hand, it increases the relative domestic productivity of the sectors using that resource more intensively, compared to the same industries in other countries, and also raises the exporters share in that sector. Thus, it enhances the Ricardian comparative advantage along the lines of the Heckscher–Ohlin comparative advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining Afrobarometer survey data with geocoded data on the discovery and shutdown dates of gold mines, we show that individuals who had gold mines within their district when they were in adolescence have significantly lower educational attainment as adults. Exploring mechanisms, we find that this effect is not driven by endogenous migration, nor a higher incidence of conflicts, nor by a lower provision of schools in mining districts. While data limitations prevent us from fully exploring other channels, prior work as well as suggestive evidence point towards a higher incidence of child labour in mining district as the main mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common puzzle in economics is whether natural resources are a 'curse' or a 'blessing' for economic development. Previous studies have suggested that resource booms can promote growth, but private rent-seeking can turn these booms into a curse if institutions are weak. We argue that private incentives differ depending on whether rents are diversified across different commodities or concentrated in a few of them, because greater diversification implies higher appropriation costs. By using SITC-4 level of export disaggregation to measure within-sector concentration in 131 countries during 1991–2015, we show that the effect of mining rents on economic growth is conditional on the level of concentration within the mining sector. Mining rents enhance growth for economies with low concentration and strong institutions but reduce growth for economies with high-concentration and extremely weak institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Cement Armada' was a major Nigerian government scandal which culminated in hundreds of cement-laden ships arriving en masse at Lagos, creating severe multi-year-long port congestion during the height of the 1970s oil boom. In spite of the scale of the scandal, its causes and consequences have received little attention from scholars. This article presents new research which suggests the Armada was one of several contributing factors to the extraordinary inflation in the price of construction during period. It places the scandal in the context of debates about corruption, organisational failure and a 'resource curse' in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]