Resources for Sale: Corruption, Democracy and the Natural Resource Curse
Abstract
A puzzling piece of empirical evidence suggests that resource-abundant countries tend to grow slower than their resource-poor counterparts. We attempt to explain this phenomenon by developing a lobbying game in which rent seeking firms interact with corrupt governments. The presence or absence of political competition, as well as the potential costs of political transitions, turn out to be key elements in generating the ‘resource curse.’ These variables define the degree of freedom that incumbent governments have in pursuing development policies that maximize surplus in the lobbying game, but put the economy off its optimal path. We test our predictions by adding measures of democracy and authoritarianism to existing regression models of the resource curse, and obtain support for our hypotheses.Download Info
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Paper provided by University of Adelaide, Centre for International Economic Studies in its series Centre for International Economic Studies Working Papers with number 2003-20.Length: 41 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2003
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:adl:cieswp:2003-20
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Related research
Keywords: Resource endowment and economic growth; development; rent seeking; bribing; corruption.;Other versions of this item:
- Erwin Bulte & Richard Damania, 2008. "Resources for Sale: Corruption, Democracy and the Natural Resource Curse," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 5.
- Q3 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation
- O13 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Minier, Jenny A, 1998. " Democracy and Growth: Alternative Approaches," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 241-66, September.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Sambit Bhattacharyya & Roland Hodler, 2008.
"Natural Resources, Democracy and Corruption,"
OxCarre Working Papers
020, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
- Bhattacharyya, Sambit & Hodler, Roland, 2010. "Natural resources, democracy and corruption," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 608-621, May.
- Sambit Bhattacharyya & Roland Hodler, 2008. "Natural Resources, Democracy and Corruption," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1047, The University of Melbourne.
- James, Alex & Aadland, David, 2011. "The curse of natural resources: An empirical investigation of U.S. counties," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 440-453, May.
- Kolstad, Ivar & Wiig, Arne & Williams, Aled, 2009. "Mission improbable: Does petroleum-related aid address the resource curse?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 954-965, March.
- Goel, Rajeev K. & Korhonen, Iikka, 2011.
"Exports and cross-national corruption: A disaggregated examination,"
Economic Systems,
Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 109-124, March.
- Goel, Rajeev K. & Korhonen, Iikka, 2009. "Composition of Exports and Cross-Country Corruption," BOFIT Discussion Papers 5/2009, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
- Gregmar Galinato & Suzette Galinato, 2010. "The Effects of Corruption Control and Political Stability on the Environmental Kuznets Curve of Deforestation-Induced Carbon Dioxide Emissions," Working Papers 2010-9, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University.
- Carmignani, Fabrizio & Avom, Desire, 2010. "The social development effects of primary commodity export dependence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 317-330, December.
- Jørgen Juel Andersen & Silje Aslaksen, 2006.
"Constitutions and the resource curse,"
Working Paper Series
7506, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
- Andersen, Jørgen Juel & Aslaksen, Silje, 2008. "Constitutions and the resource curse," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 227-246, October.
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