IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bge/wpaper/317.html

Democracy and the curse of natural resources

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Cabrales
  • Esther Hauk

Abstract

We propose a theoretical model to explain empirical regularities related to the curse of natural resources. This is an explicitly political model which emphasizes the behavior and incentives of politicians. We extend the standard voting model to give voters political control beyond the elections. This gives rise to a new restriction into our political economy model: policies should not give rise to a revolution. Our model clarifies when resource discoveries might lead to revolutions, namely, in countries with weak institutions. Natural resources may be bad for democracy by harming political turnover. Our model also suggests a non-linear dependence of human capital on natural resources. For low levels of democracy human capital depends negatively on natural resources, while for high levels of democracy the dependence is reversed. This theoretical finding is corroborated in both cross section and panel data regressions.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Cabrales & Esther Hauk, 2015. "Democracy and the curse of natural resources," Working Papers 317, Barcelona School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:317
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://bw.bse.esgallapre3.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/1317-file.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. S. Guriev & G. Egorov & K. Sonin, 2007. "Media Freedom, Bureaucratic Incentives, and the Resource Curse," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, issue 4.
    2. Simeon Djankov & Jose Montalvo & Marta Reynal-Querol, 2008. "The curse of aid," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 169-194, September.
    3. Olsson, Ola, 2007. "Conflict diamonds," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 267-286, March.
    4. Xavier Sala-I-Martin & Gernot Doppelhofer & Ronald I. Miller, 2004. "Determinants of Long-Term Growth: A Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates (BACE) Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 813-835, September.
    5. Thorvaldur Gylfason, 2006. "Natural Resources and Economic Growth: From Dependence to Diversification," Springer Books, in: Harry G. Broadman & Tiiu Paas & Paul J.J. Welfens (ed.), Economic Liberalization and Integration Policy, pages 201-231, Springer.
    6. Gylfason, Thorvaldur, 2001. "Natural resources, education, and economic development," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 847-859, May.
    7. Teresa Garcia-Milà & Albert Marcet & Eva Ventura, 2010. "Supply Side Interventions and Redistribution," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(543), pages 105-130, March.
    8. Halvor Mehlum & Karl Moene & Ragnar Torvik, 2006. "Institutions and the Resource Curse," Springer Books, in: Roger D. Congleton & Kai A. Konrad & Arye L. Hillman (ed.), 40 Years of Research on Rent Seeking 2, pages 245-264, Springer.
    9. Kevin Morrison, 2007. "Natural resources, aid, and democratization: A best-case scenario," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 365-386, June.
    10. Acemoglu,Daron & Robinson,James A., 2009. "Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671422, January.
    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. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Cervellati Matteo & Fortunato Piergiuseppe & Sunde Uwe, 2012. "Consensual and Conflictual Democratization," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-51, December.

    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. Vittorio Daniele, 2011. "Natural Resources and the 'Quality' of Economic Development," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 545-573.
    2. Tahar, Moez Ben & Slimane, Sarra Ben & Ali Houfi, Mohamed, 2021. "Commodity prices and economic growth in commodity-dependent countries: New evidence from nonlinear and asymmetric analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Carmignani, Fabrizio, 2013. "Development outcomes, resource abundance, and the transmission through inequality," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 412-428.
    4. Mahmoud Al-Iriani, 2012. "Oil Curse in Yemen: The Role of Institutions and Policy," Working Papers 694, Economic Research Forum, revised 2012.
    5. Al-Ubaydli, Omar, 2012. "Natural resources and the tradeoff between authoritarianism and development," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 137-152.
    6. 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.
    7. Aguirre Unceta, Rafael, 2021. "The economic and social impact of mining-resources exploitation in Zambia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Muhamad, Goran M. & Heshmati, Almas & Khayyat, Nabaz T., 2021. "How to reduce the degree of dependency on natural resources?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    9. Laszlo Szalai, 2018. "Institutions and Resource-driven Development," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 4(1), pages 39-53, June.
    10. Pérez, Claudia & Claveria, Oscar, 2020. "Natural resources and human development: Evidence from mineral-dependent African countries using exploratory graphical analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Polterovich, Victor & Popov, Vladimir & Tonis, Alexander, 2008. "Mechanisms of Resource Curse, Economic Policy and Growth," MPRA Paper 20570, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Adewale Samuel Hassan & Daniel Francois Meyer & Sebastian Kot, 2019. "Effect of Institutional Quality and Wealth from Oil Revenue on Economic Growth in Oil-Exporting Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-14, July.
    13. Sun, Xiaohua & Ren, Junlin & Wang, Yun, 2022. "The impact of resource taxation on resource curse: Evidence from Chinese resource tax policy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Kpognon, Koffi D., 2022. "Fostering domestic resources mobilization in sub-Saharan Africa: Linking natural resources and ICT infrastructure to the size of informal economy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Shu Yang & Elyas Abdulahi & Muhammad Afaq Haider & Mohammed Asif Khan, 2019. "Revisiting the Curse: Resource Rent and Economic Growth of Sub-Sahara African Countries," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 9(1), pages 121-130.
    16. Akram, Vaseem & Ali, Jabir, 2022. "Do countries converge in natural resources rents? Evidence from club convergence analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    17. Hasanov, Fakhri J. & Aliyev, Ruslan & Taskin, Dilvin & Suleymanov, Elchin, 2023. "Oil rents and non-oil economic growth in CIS oil exporters. The role of financial development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Asiamah, Oliver & Agyei, Samuel Kwaku & Ahmed, Bossman & Agyei, Ellen Animah, 2022. "Natural resource dependence and the Dutch disease: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Muhammad Atif Khan & Muhammad Asif Khan & Kishwar Ali & József Popp & Judit Oláh, 2020. "Natural Resource Rent and Finance: The Moderation Role of Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-23, May.
    20. Faisal Faisal & Aliya Zhakanova Isiksal & Adnan Ali & Nur Naha Abu Mansor & Iman Sulaiman Amur AL Maktoumi, 2025. "Natural resources to economic prosperity: evaluating the role of institutional quality, financial development, and human capital in the resource-rich economy," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 38(2), pages 319-335, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

    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:bge:wpaper:317. 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: Bruno Guallar (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bargses.html .

    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.