IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-25-00545.html

Spillover effects of natural resources on state fragility in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Oumarou Zallé

    (Université Norbert Zongo)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the spillover effects of natural resources on African state fragility. To this end, a dynamic spatial Durbin model was estimated, identifying endogenous and contextual effects. The analysis results showed that the fragility of African states is spatially dependent and that this fragility is a self-reinforcing phenomenon over time. However, for a given country, the fragility of neighboring countries contributes to the attenuation of fragility in that country through the diffusion of propagation signals. Spillover effects from economic growth and Internet use reduce fragility. A robustness analysis distinguishing between different categories of natural resources (gas, oil, coal and minerals) reveals that significant spatial spillover effects mainly stem from gas rents, while oil and mining rents do not exhibit statistically robust spillover effects. This means that the spatial impact of natural resources on state fragility is not uniform and depends on the specific nature of extractive rents. These results suggest participatory management of natural resources to reduce rent-seeking and predatory behaviors. Given the complementarity of African countries in reducing fragility, they need to coordinate their policies to combat insecurity and share experiences in natural resource management.

Suggested Citation

  • Oumarou Zallé, 2026. "Spillover effects of natural resources on state fragility in Africa," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 46(2), pages 742-755.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-25-00545
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2026/Volume46/EB-26-V46-I2-P64.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lei, Yu-Hsiang & Michaels, Guy, 2014. "Do giant oilfield discoveries fuel internal armed conflicts?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 139-157.
    2. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2009. "The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation, and Politics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1218-1244, September.
    3. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2004. "Greed and grievance in civil war," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 563-595, October.
    4. Vesco, Paola & Dasgupta, Shouro & De Cian, Enrica & Carraro, Carlo, 2020. "Natural resources and conflict: A meta-analysis of the empirical literature," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    5. Bhattacharyya, Sambit & Hodler, Roland, 2014. "Do Natural Resource Revenues Hinder Financial Development? The Role of Political Institutions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 101-113.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Colin O'Reilly & Ryan H. Murphy, 2017. "Do Institutions Mitigate The Risk Of Natural Resource Conflicts?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(3), pages 532-541, July.
    2. Maxime Menuet, 2024. "Natural Resources, Civil Conflicts, and Economic Growth," GREDEG Working Papers 2024-05, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    3. Nemera Gebeyehu Mamo, . "Essays on natural resources in Africa: local economic development, multi-ethnic coalitions and armed conflict," Economics PhD Theses, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School, number 0518, December.
    4. Rabah Arezki & Sambit Bhattacharyya & Nemera Mamo, 2015. "Resource Discovery and Conflict in Africa: What Do the Data Show?," CSAE Working Paper Series 2015-14, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    5. Phoebe W. Ishak & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, 2022. "Oil price shocks, protest, and the shadow economy: Is there a mitigation effect?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 298-321, July.
    6. Ngassam, Sylvain B. & Asongu, Simplice A. & Ngueuleweu, Gildas Tiwang, 2024. "A revisit of the natural resource curse in the tourism industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Sarra Ben Slimane, 2024. "The Impact of Resource Revenue on Non-Resource Tax Revenue in Oil-Exporting Countries: Evidence from Nonlinear Analysis," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, vol. 14(1), pages 272-280, January.
    8. Bharati, Tushar & Jetter, Michael & Malik, Muhammad Nauman, 2024. "Types of communications technology and civil conflict," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    9. Zorzeta Bakaki, 2020. "The Joint Effect of International and Domestic-Level State Capacity on Civil War Risk," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-14, May.
    10. Sambit Bhattacharyya & Michael Keller, 2021. "Resource Discovery and the Political Fortunes of National Leaders," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 129-166, January.
    11. Frederick Ploeg, 2024. "Benefits of Rent Sharing in Dynamic Resource Games," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 20-32, March.
    12. Silve, Arthur & Verdier, Thierry, 2018. "A theory of regional conflict complexes," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 434-447.
    13. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2010. "State Capacity, Conflict, and Development," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(1), pages 1-34, January.
    14. Francesco Caselli & Massimo Morelli & Dominic Rohner, 2015. "The Geography of Interstate Resource Wars," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 267-315.
    15. Thiemo Fetzer & Pedro C. L. Souza & Oliver Vanden Eynde & Austin L. Wright, 2021. "Security Transitions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(7), pages 2275-2308, July.
    16. Arinze Nwokolo, 2018. "Oil Price Shocks and Civil Conflict: Evidence from Nigeria," HiCN Working Papers 274, Households in Conflict Network.
    17. Jiang, Chun & Zhang, Yadi & Kamran, Hafiz Waqas & Afshan, Sahar, 2021. "Understanding the dynamics of the resource curse and financial development in China? A novel evidence based on QARDL model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Morelli, Massimo & Rohner, Dominic, 2015. "Resource concentration and civil wars," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 32-47.
    19. Camille Laville, 2018. "The econometrical causal analysis of internal conflicts: The evolutions of a growing literature [L’analyse économétrique des conflits internes par l’approche causale : les évolutions d’une littérature en expansion]," Working Papers hal-01940461, HAL.
    20. repec:hal:cepnwp:hal-01583559 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Ahsan Kibria & Reza Oladi & Sherzod B. Akhundjanov, 2020. "Foreign direct investment and civil violence in Sub‐Saharan Africa," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 948-981, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q3 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation
    • C3 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-25-00545. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.