Three essays on the effects of natural resources rents, institutions and demographic factors on economic growth

This thesis consists of three distinct but interrelated essays on the implications of resources rents, institutions and demographic indicators for economic growth. Chapter two utilises timeseries data to investigate the impacts of oil rents, institutions, and diversification on the Nigerian economy's growth. Chapter three applies panel data to determine the effects of oil rents and institutions on OPEC economies' growth. Chapter four uses extensive panel data of 216 economies and extends our study to consider the implications of demographic factors, political institutions, and natural resource rents on economic growth. Given the potential for endogeneity in regression analysis of the drivers of growth, we draw our main results from estimators that consider possible endogeneity. For the Nigerian economy, oil rents positively impact economic growth, contingent on good institutions. Our findings suggest that the quality of democratic institutions in Nigeria is significant for economic growth. Diversification of the economy also shows a positive effect on growth. For the OPEC economies, oil rents have negative implications for its economic growth. We find empirical evidence that institutional qualities: the legal, anticorruption and government effectiveness qualities positively impact OPEC economic growth. Chapter four shows that the population size and growth rate have an asymmetric impact on economic growth. This thesis contributes to the literature by developing varying institutional qualities for Nigeria and OPEC. Furthermore, we develop a model for the OPEC oligopoly power and demonstrates that countries' population growth rates and size are crucial drivers of growth. We observe that whilst democracy promotes economic growth; it does not necessarily follow that those states that are not democratising will lag in growth. The main conclusions of the thesis are that the existence of strong institutions is crucial for resource-producing countries. Demographic factors are significant for growth, and diversification of the economy is vital for economic growth.