IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v118y2023ics0140988323000142.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public debt, Chinese loans and optimal exploration–extraction in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Chuku, Chuku
  • Lang, Lin
  • Lim, King Yoong

Abstract

Based on an optimal oil exploration–extraction model with public debts and Chinese loans, we examine analytically and empirically two theoretical propositions pertaining to the impacts of public debt and Chinese loan on economic and physical scarcity/abundance in African economies. First, despite a baseline independent relationship between public debt and optimal operations, the level of public debts can have an adverse effect on the abundance measures if it breached the debt-sustainability threshold. Second, with alternative Chinese loans, the effect on optimal exploration–extraction is analytically ambiguous. To examine both propositions, we estimate endogenous binary-treatment regression models based on a panel data of 18 African economies over 2000–17. We find empirical support with regards to the adverse effect of public debt sustainability. Further, we find positive effect from Chinese loans to both abundance measures, indicating that the combined marginal benefits outweigh the marginal costs associated with the resource-collateralized funding nature of these loans.

Suggested Citation

  • Chuku, Chuku & Lang, Lin & Lim, King Yoong, 2023. "Public debt, Chinese loans and optimal exploration–extraction in Africa," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:118:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323000142
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106516
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988323000142
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106516?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ludovic Gauvin & Cyril C. Rebillard, 2018. "Towards recoupling? Assessing the global impact of a Chinese hard landing through trade and commodity price channels," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(12), pages 3379-3415, December.
    2. Schmitt-Grohe, Stephanie & Uribe, Martin, 2003. "Closing small open economy models," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 163-185, October.
    3. Agénor, Pierre-Richard & Neanidis, Kyriakos C., 2015. "Innovation, public capital, and growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 252-275.
    4. Javier Garcia-Cicco & Roberto Pancrazi & Martin Uribe, 2010. "Real Business Cycles in Emerging Countries?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2510-2531, December.
    5. Dong-Hyeon Kim & Shu-Chin Lin, 2017. "Natural Resources and Economic Development: New Panel Evidence," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 66(2), pages 363-391, February.
    6. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2010. "Growth in a Time of Debt," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 573-578, May.
    7. repec:dau:papers:123456789/15028 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Agénor, Pierre-Richard & Alper, Koray & Pereira da Silva, Luiz A., 2014. "Sudden floods, macroprudential regulation and stability in an open economy," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(PA), pages 68-100.
    9. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric & Hofkes, Marjan W., 2015. "Modeling peak oil and the geological constraints on oil production," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 36-56.
    10. Badeeb, Ramez Abubakr & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Smyth, Russell, 2016. "Oil curse and finance–growth nexus in Malaysia: The role of investment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 154-165.
    11. Djimeu, Eric W., 2018. "The impact of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative on growth and investment in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 108-127.
    12. Gérard Gaudet, 2007. "Natural resource economics under the rule of Hotelling," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1033-1059, November.
    13. Bai, Yiyi & Okullo, Samuel J., 2018. "Understanding oil scarcity through drilling activity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 261-269.
    14. Pindyck, Robert S, 1978. "The Optimal Exploration and Production of Nonrenewable Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 841-861, October.
    15. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    16. Mark Aguiar & Gita Gopinath, 2007. "Emerging Market Business Cycles: The Cycle Is the Trend," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115, pages 69-102.
    17. Alice Nicole Sindzingre, 2011. "The Rise of China in Sub-Saharan Africa: its Ambiguous Economic Impacts," Post-Print halshs-00636022, HAL.
    18. Leung, Guy C.K., 2011. "China's energy security: Perception and reality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1330-1337, March.
    19. Harold Hotelling, 1931. "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39, pages 137-137.
    20. Frankel, Jeffrey A., 2010. "The Natural Resource Curse: A Survey," Scholarly Articles 4454156, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    21. Agénor, Pierre-Richard, 2016. "Optimal fiscal management of commodity price shocks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 183-196.
    22. Livernois, John R & Uhler, Russell S, 1987. "Extraction Costs and the Economics of Nonrenewable Resources," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(1), pages 195-203, February.
    23. Boyce, John R. & Nøstbakken, Linda, 2011. "Exploration and development of U.S. oil and gas fields, 1955-2002," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 891-908, June.
    24. Arezki, Rabah & van der Ploeg, Frederick & Toscani, Frederik, 2019. "The shifting natural wealth of nations: The role of market orientation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 228-245.
    25. Cassimon, Danny & Van Campenhout, Bjorn & Ferry, Marin & Raffinot, Marc, 2015. "Africa: Out of debt, into fiscal space? Dynamic fiscal impact of the debt relief initiatives on African Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs)," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 29-52.
    26. Easterly, William, 2002. "How Did Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Become Heavily Indebted? Reviewing Two Decades of Debt Relief," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1677-1696, October.
    27. King Yoong Lim, 2020. "Equity Market Performance and Public Debt: An Empirical Investigation," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(1), pages 16-38, January.
    28. Caner, Mehmet & Grennes,Thomas & Koehler-Geib, Fritzi, 2010. "Finding the tipping point -- when sovereign debt turns bad," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5391, The World Bank.
    29. Calvin Atewamba & Bruno Nkuiya, 2017. "Testing the Assumptions and Predictions of the Hotelling Model," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 66(1), pages 169-203, January.
    30. Swierzbinski, Joseph E & Mendelsohn, Robert, 1989. "Exploration and Exhaustible Resources: The Microfoundations of Aggregate Models," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(1), pages 175-186, February.
    31. Adom, Philip Kofi & Opoku, Eric Evans Osei & Yan, Isabel Kit-Ming, 2019. "Energy demand–FDI nexus in Africa: Do FDIs induce dichotomous paths?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 928-941.
    32. Brautigam, Deborah & Huang, Yufan & Acker, Kevin, 2020. "Risky Business: New Data on Chinese Loans and Africa's Debt Problem," SAIS-CARI Briefing Papers 03/2020, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), China Africa Research Initiative (CARI).
    33. Asiedu, Elizabeth, 2003. "Debt relief and institutional reform: a focus on Heavily Indebted Poor Countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 614-626.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nsirimovu, Okwuwada, 2023. "Reflecting on the appetite for borrowing and the volatility of crude prices for rapid post-COVID economic recovery initiatives in Nigeria: Implications for Per capita income using a Dynamic ARDL simul," MPRA Paper 119532, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Dec 2023.

    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. van den Bijgaart, Inge & Rodriguez, Mauricio, 2023. "Closing wells: Fossil development and abandonment in the energy transition," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Fernández, Andrés & González, Andrés & Rodríguez, Diego, 2018. "Sharing a ride on the commodities roller coaster: Common factors in business cycles of emerging economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 99-121.
    3. Roberto Ferreira da Cunha & Antoine Missemer, 2020. "The Hotelling rule in non‐renewable resource economics: A reassessment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 800-820, May.
    4. Anthony J. Venables, 2014. "Depletion and Development: Natural Resource Supply with Endogenous Field Opening," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(3), pages 313-336.
    5. King Yoong Lim & Shuonan Zhang, 2023. "Optimal fiscal management in an economy with resource revenue‐financed government‐linked companies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 2202-2225, April.
    6. van den Bijgaart, I & Rodríguez, M, 2020. "Closing wells; fossil exploration and abandonment in the energy transition," Documentos de Trabajo 18249, Universidad del Rosario.
    7. Hansen, James & Gross, Isaac, 2018. "Commodity price volatility with endogenous natural resources," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 157-180.
    8. Yun Jung Kim & Jing Zhang, 2021. "The Relationship Between Debt and Output," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(1), pages 230-257, March.
    9. Bai, Yiyi & Okullo, Samuel J., 2018. "Understanding oil scarcity through drilling activity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 261-269.
    10. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric & Hofkes, Marjan W., 2015. "Modeling peak oil and the geological constraints on oil production," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 36-56.
    11. Elin Berg & Snorre Kverndokk & Knut Einar Rosendahl, 1999. "Optimal Oil Exploration under Climate Treaties," Discussion Papers 245, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    12. Toman, Michael & Krautkraemer, Jeffrey, 2003. "Fundamental Economics of Depletable Energy Supply," RFF Working Paper Series dp-03-01, Resources for the Future.
    13. Marin Ferry & Marc Raffinot, 2019. "Curse or Blessing? Has the Impact of Debt Relief Lived up to Expectations? A Review of the Effects of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiatives for Low-Income Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(9), pages 1867-1891, September.
    14. Nyambuu, Unurjargal & Semmler, Willi, 2014. "Trends in the extraction of non-renewable resources: The case of fossil energy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 271-279.
    15. Vicknair, David & Tansey, Michael & O'Brien, Thomas E., 2022. "Measuring fossil fuel reserves: A simulation and review of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    16. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric & Hofkes, Marjan W., 2021. "(Bio-)Fuel mandating and the green paradox," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    17. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2017. "Environmental and resource economics: A Canadian retrospective," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1381-1413, December.
    18. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2017. "Environmental and resource economics: A Canadian retrospective," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1381-1413, December.
    19. Jeffrey A. Krautkraemer, 1998. "Nonrenewable Resource Scarcity," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 2065-2107, December.
    20. Michaud, Amanda & Rothert, Jacek, 2018. "Redistributive fiscal policies and business cycles in emerging economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 123-133.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; Chinese loans; Economic scarcity; Exploration and extraction; Non-renewable resources;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q31 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q35 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Hydrocarbon Resources
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

    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:eee:eneeco:v:118:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323000142. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    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.