Resources extraction, industrial sector, and economic growth: Middle East and North African economies overview

The sustainable management of resource extraction while simultaneously promoting industrial production to attain sustainable development has been a subject of ongoing debate in current times. There is a lack of comprehensive investigation on the connection between natural resources, economic expansion, and industrial progress in developing economies, particularly in African and Middle Eastern nations, from 1990 to 2020. This research intends to cover this research gap by investigating the interconnection between natural resources and the economic progress of these regions during the specified timeframe. Additionally, the study incorporates industrial expansion and trade as control variables, introducing a novel perspective on how these factors can harness natural resources efficiently and contribute to sustainable economic growth. Numerous time series approaches are included in the research which is: ADF-GLS for the unit root process study for the prime results, (ARDL) is employed and for robustness check, the study uses two parametric approaches which include FMOLS, DOLS CCR, and Robust least squares. The outcomes exhibit that variables are stationary at first difference D (1). The empirical findings reveal that mineral rents improve on economic growth in the long term which shows a blessing for the economies in the future while the outcomes of mineral rents are insignificant and inconclusive in the short run. Moreover, industrial expansion increases economic growth while trade significantly reduces economic growth in African and Middle Eastern economies. The robustness check analysis provides similar estimates to the key findings of ARDL estimates. Moreover, policies aimed at sustainable extraction of resources (mineral rents) and efficient handling of industrial expansion could enhance sustainable economic expansion.