IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdi/wpaper/1644.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Oil Rent and Income Inequality in Developing Economies: Are They Friends or Foes?

Author

Listed:
  • Gaëlle Tatiana TIMBA
  • Douzounet MALLAYE
  • Urbain Thierry YOGO

Abstract

Using the most recent available data on a sample of 40 developing countries, this paper addresses the effects of oil rent on inequality. Mobilizing a dynamic panel data specification over the period 1996–2008, the econometric results yield two important findings. First, there is a non-linear (U-shaped) relationship between oil rent and inequality. Specifically, oil rent lowers inequality in the short run. This effect then diminishes over time as the oil revenues increase. Our complementary finding is that the fall in income inequality as a result of the increase in the oil rent is fully absorbed by the increase in corruption. Further, the paper examines the channels of causality underlying this relationship. The graphical analysis shows the consistency of the data with the hypothesis according to which corruption, military expenditure, and inflation mediate the effect of oil rent on income inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Gaëlle Tatiana TIMBA & Douzounet MALLAYE & Urbain Thierry YOGO, 2015. "Oil Rent and Income Inequality in Developing Economies: Are They Friends or Foes?," Working Papers 201502, CERDI.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1644
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://publi.cerdi.org/ed/2015/2015.02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Hubert Ebeke & Luc Désiré Omgba, 2011. "Oil rents, governance quality, and the allocation of talents in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-00616587, HAL.
    2. Schubert, Samuel R., 2006. "Revisiting the oil curse: are oil rich nations really doomed to autocracy and inequality?," MPRA Paper 10109, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, 1998. "Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty?," IMF Working Papers 1998/076, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew M. Warner, 1995. "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 5398, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong, 2002. "Corruption, economic growth, and income inequality in Africa," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 183-209, November.
    6. Xavier Sala-i-Martin & Arvind Subramanian, 2013. "Addressing the Natural Resource Curse: An Illustration from Nigeria," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 22(4), pages 570-615, August.
    7. Easterly, William & Fischer, Stanley, 2001. "Inflation and the Poor," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(2), pages 160-178, May.
    8. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    9. Vicente, Pedro C., 2010. "Does oil corrupt? Evidence from a natural experiment in West Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 28-38, May.
    10. Antonio Andres & Carlyn Ramlogan-Dobson, 2011. "Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from Latin America," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 959-976.
    11. By Ales BulÌr, 2001. "Income Inequality: Does Inflation Matter?," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(1), pages 1-5.
    12. Gylfason, Thorvaldur, 2001. "Natural resources, education, and economic development," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 847-859, May.
    13. Maëlan LE GOFF & Christian EBEKE, 2009. "Why Migrants' Remittances Reduce Income Inequality in some Countries and not in Others?," Working Papers 200919, CERDI.
    14. van Wijnbergen, Sweder J G, 1984. "The 'Dutch Disease': A Disease after All?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(373), pages 41-55, March.
    15. Lopez-Feldman, Alejandro & Mora, Jorge & Taylor, J. Edward, 2006. "Does Natural Resource Extraction Mitigate Poverty and Inequality? Evidence from Rural Mexico," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25765, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Kwabena Gyimah-Brempong & Samaria de Gyimah-Brempong, 2006. "Corruption, Growth, and Income Distribution: Are there Regional Differences?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 245-269, August.
    17. Mihasonirina Andrianaivo & Kangni Kpodar, 2012. "Mobile Phones, Financial Inclusion, and Growth," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 3(2).
    18. Corden, W Max & Neary, J Peter, 1982. "Booming Sector and De-Industrialisation in a Small Open Economy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 825-848, December.
    19. Benedikt Goderis & Samuel W. Malone, 2011. "Natural Resource Booms and Inequality: Theory and Evidence," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113(2), pages 388-417, June.
    20. Dincer, Oguzhan C. & Gunalp, Burak, 2008. "Corruption, Income Inequality, and Poverty in the United States," Knowledge, Technology, Human Capital Working Papers 37848, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    21. Rabah Arezki & Thorvaldur Gylfason, 2011. "Resource Rents, Democracy and Corruption: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," CESifo Working Paper Series 3575, CESifo.
    22. Mr. Carlos A Leite & Jens Weidmann, 1999. "Does Mother Nature Corrupt? Natural Resources, Corruption, and Economic Growth," IMF Working Papers 1999/085, International Monetary Fund.
    23. Torvik, Ragnar, 2002. "Natural resources, rent seeking and welfare," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 455-470, April.
    24. Ruikang Marcus Fum & Roland Hodler, 2009. "Natural Resources & Income Inequality: The Role of Ethnic Divisions," OxCarre Working Papers 023, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    25. Arezki, Rabah & Brückner, Markus, 2011. "Oil rents, corruption, and state stability: Evidence from panel data regressions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 955-963.
    26. Oguzhan C. Dincer & Burak Gunalp, 2008. "Corruption, Income Inequality, and Poverty in the United States," Working Papers 2008.54, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    27. Kenneth L. Sokoloff & Stanley L. Engerman, 2000. "Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 217-232, Summer.
    28. Samuel R Schubert, 2006. "Revisiting the Oil Curse," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 49(3), pages 64-70, September.
    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. Kazeem B. Ajide & Olorunfemi Y. Alimi & Simplice A. Asongu, 2019. "Ethnic Diversity and Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do Institutions Reduce the Noise?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 1033-1062, October.
    2. Arsham Reisinezhad, 2020. "Does income inequality feed the Dutch disease?," PSE Working Papers halshs-03012653, HAL.
    3. Keller, Michael, 2020. "Wasted windfalls: Inefficiencies in health care spending in oil rich countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Gadom Djal Gadom & Armand Mboutchouang Kountchou & Gbetoton Nad ge Ad le Djossou & Gilles Quentin Kane & Abdelkrim Araar, 2017. "The impact of oil exploitation on wellbeing in Chad," Working Papers PMMA 2017-06, PEP-PMMA.
    5. Arsham Reisinezhad, 2018. "Economic Growth and Income Inequality in Resource Countries: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers halshs-01707976, HAL.
    6. Younes Nademi, 2018. "The resource curse and income inequality in Iran," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 1159-1172, May.
    7. John C. Anyanwu, 2016. "Empirical Analysis of the Main Drivers of Income Inequality in Southern Africa," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 17(2), pages 337-364, November.

    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. Younes Nademi, 2018. "The resource curse and income inequality in Iran," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 1159-1172, May.
    2. Douzounet Mallaye & Gaëlle Tatiana Timba & Urbain Thierry Yogo, 2015. "Oil Rent and Income Inequality in Developing Economies: Are They Friends or Foes?," CERDI Working papers halshs-01100843, HAL.
    3. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2011. "Natural Resources: Curse or Blessing?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 366-420, June.
    4. Kaznacheev, Peter, 2013. "Resource Rents and Economic Growth: Economic and institutional development in countries with a high share of income from the sale of natural resources. Analysis and recommendations based on internatio," EconStor Research Reports 121950, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Badeeb, Ramez Abubakr & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Clark, Jeremy, 2017. "The evolution of the natural resource curse thesis: A critical literature survey," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 123-134.
    6. Costantini, Valeria & Monni, Salvatore, 2008. "Environment, human development and economic growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 867-880, February.
    7. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2014. "The oil curse, institutional quality, and growth in MENA countries: Evidence from time-varying cointegration," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-9.
    8. Collier, Paul & Goderis, Benedikt, 2012. "Commodity prices and growth: An empirical investigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1241-1260.
    9. Alssadek, Marwan & Benhin, James, 2023. "Natural resource curse: A literature survey and comparative assessment of regional groupings of oil-rich countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Tiba, Sofien & Frikha, Mohamed, 2019. "The controversy of the resource curse and the environment in the SDGs background: The African context," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 437-452.
    11. Ruba A. Aljarallah & Andrew Angus, 2020. "Dilemma of Natural Resource Abundance: A Case Study of Kuwait," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440198, January.
    12. Steinberg, Daniel, 2017. "Resource shocks and human capital stocks – Brain drain or brain gain?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 250-268.
    13. Barbier,Edward B., 2007. "Natural Resources and Economic Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521706513.
    14. Thorvaldur Gylfason & Gylfi Zoega, 2017. "The Dutch Disease in Reverse: Iceland's Natural Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 6513, CESifo.
    15. Moradbeigi, Maryam & Law, Siong Hook, 2017. "The role of financial development in the oil-growth nexus," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 164-172.
    16. Thorvaldur Gylfason & Gylfi Zoega, 2014. "The Dutch Disease in Reverse: Iceland’s Natural Experiment," OxCarre Working Papers 138, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    17. Anne D. Boschini & Jan Pettersson & Jesper Roine, 2007. "Resource Curse or Not: A Question of Appropriability," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 109(3), pages 593-617, September.
    18. Vicente, Pedro C., 2010. "Does oil corrupt? Evidence from a natural experiment in West Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 28-38, May.
    19. Khan, Muhammad Atif & Gu, Lulu & Khan, Muhammad Asif & Oláh, Judit, 2020. "Natural resources and financial development: The role of institutional quality," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    20. Julia Skretting, 2022. "Oil Windfalls and Regional Economic Performance in Russia," Working Papers No 02/2022, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Oil rent; Inequality; Developing countries; Dynamic panel data; Corruption;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • Q32 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cdi:wpaper:1644. 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: Vincent Mazenod (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ceauvfr.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.