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Oil discoveries and democracy

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  • Tania Masi
  • Roberto Ricciuti

Abstract

We evaluate the effect of natural resources on political regimes. We use the synthetic control method to compare evolution of the democracy level of countries affected by giant oil discoveries with the weighted democracy level of countries that do not incur the same event and have similar pre-event characteristics. Focusing on 12 countries affected by the peak of oil discovery from the 1970s, we find that the exogenous variation in oil endowment does not have the same effect on all countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Tania Masi & Roberto Ricciuti, 2016. "Oil discoveries and democracy," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-57, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2016-57
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    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2016-57.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Silvia Marchesi, 2016. "Life after default? Private vs. official sovereign debt restructurings," Development Working Papers 398, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano, revised 26 Aug 2016.
    2. Marchesi, Silvia & Masi, Tania, 2021. "Life after default. Private and official deals," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. Bergougui, B. & Murshed, S.M., 2020. "Revisiting the oil and democracy nexus : New evidence utilizing V-DEM democracy data in a GMM PVAR ‎framework ‎," ISS Working Papers - General Series 125992, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.

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    Keywords

    Democracy; Natural resources;

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