Destined to Be Less Educated and Unhealthy? Testing the Impact of Natural Resources on Female Public Health and Education, 1960-2017.

Since Ross (2008) explored whether or not the status of women in the Middle East and North African region is affected by oil on the basis of the "resource curse" thesis, scholars have extended this link into a variety of discussions. Consensus, however, is far from conclusive. This paper argues that natural resources also affect female education and health rights. The author proposes that natural resources discourage political leaders from investing in human capital of women. Additionally, they also lack strong incentives to diversify the resource-based economy. These factors account for why women's education and health outcomes are limited in resource-rich states. To lend empirical support, the author applies natural resource data of 126-164 states between 1960 and 2017. Empirical results not only support the arguments as mentioned, but also provide policy implications and theoretical contributions to the status of women in resource-rich states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]