For More Information about the Resource Curse
Check out some Late Breaking News Articles that discuss the Curse of Natural Resource Wealth
Some articles hunted down by Google News here. And some blogs about the Curse here.
Read some Provocative Articles
- “Resource Impact: Curse or Blessing? A Literature Survey” — Common sense and economic theory argue that large revenues from natural resources should generate wealth. Yet much evidence suggests the opposite and that such countries suffer from “resource curse”. The paper provides a survey of the growing academic literature on the impact of natural resources on an economy.
- “The Natural Resource Curse: How Wealth Can Make You Poor” — Violent conflict can be catastrophic for developing countries and their neighbours, stunting and even reversing the course of economic growth. Recent World Bank research on the causes of conflict and civil war finds that if you are blessed with oil, your chances of experiencing civil war quadruple … and diamonds are worse.
- “The Myth of the Resource Curse” — Recent studies assert that natural-resource abundance (particularly of minerals) has adverse consequences for economic growth. But two economists argue that it is inappropriate to equate development of mineral resources with terms such as “windfalls” and “booms.” Contrary to the view of mineral production as mere depletion of a fixed natural “endowment,” they argue that “nonrenewable” resources have been progressively extended through exploration, technological progress, and advances in appropriate knowledge.
- “Resources for Sale: Corruption, Democracy and the Natural Resource Curse” — The presence or absence of political competition, as well as the potentialcosts of political transitions, turn out to be key elements in generating the “resource curse.”
Recommended Reading, New Books and Classics
- Escaping the Resource Curse by Macartan Humphreys, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and Joseph E. Stiglitz.
- Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil by Nicholas Shaxson
- Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil by John Ghazvinian
- The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States by Terry Lynn Karl
- In 2002 John Clark of Provocate prepared a study for the UN Development Programme that used the analytic framework of the “resource curse” to help guide Kazakhstan toward sustainable prosperity and democratic governance. Needless to say, no one paid any attentio to it. But you can read it here.
Talk to Central Indiana Experts
Scott Pegg of IUPUI looks at the impacts of the resource curse at the local level in Nigeria, and at the global level of corrupt multilateral institutions: smpegg@iupui.edu
