IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5398.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey D. Sachs
  • Andrew M. Warner

Abstract

One of the surprising features of modern economic growth is that economies with abundant natural resources have tended to grow less rapidly than natural-resource-scarce economies. In this paper we show that economies with a high ratio of natural resource exports to GDP in 1971 (the base year) tended to have low growth rates during the subsequent period 1971-89. This negative relationship holds true even after controlling for variables found to be important for economic growth, such as initial per capita income, trade policy, government efficiency, investment rates, and other variables. We explore the possible pathways for this negative relationship by studying the cross-country effects of resource endowments on trade policy, bureaucratic efficiency, and other determinants of growth. We also provide a simple theoretical model of endogenous growth that might help to explain the observed negative relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew M. Warner, 1995. "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 5398, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5398
    Note: EFG IFM EEE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5398.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew M. Warner, 1995. "Economic Convergence and Economic Policies," NBER Working Papers 5039, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Warner, Andrew M., 1994. "Mexico's investment collapse: debt or oil?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 239-256, April.
    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. Patel, Dev & Sandefur, Justin & Subramanian, Arvind, 2021. "The new era of unconditional convergence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Nunnenkamp, Peter, 1997. "Aufhol- und Abkopplungsprozesse im europäischen Binnenmarkt," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1715, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    3. Andrés, Antonio R. & Goel, Rajeev K., 2012. "Does software piracy affect economic growth? Evidence across countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 284-295.
    4. Lant Pritchett, 1997. "Divergence, Big Time," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 3-17, Summer.
    5. Baarsch, Florent & Granadillos, Jessie R. & Hare, William & Knaus, Maria & Krapp, Mario & Schaeffer, Michiel & Lotze-Campen, Hermann, 2020. "The impact of climate change on incomes and convergence in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Serven, Luis, 1995. "Capital goods imports, the real exchange rate and the current account," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1-2), pages 79-101, August.
    7. Jonathon W. Moses & Bjørn Letnes, 2003. "If People were Money: Estimating the Potential Gains from Increased International Migration," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-41, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Fadi Fawaz & Anis Mnif & Ani Popiashvili, 2021. "Impact of governance on economic growth in developing countries: a case of HIDC vs. LIDC," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 23(1), pages 44-58, June.
    9. Marco Fugazza, 2004. "Export Performance And Its Determinants: Supply And Demand Constraints," UNCTAD Blue Series Papers 26, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    10. Mathias Lund Larsen, 2023. "Bottom-up market-facilitation and top-down market-steering: comparing and conceptualizing green finance approaches in the EU and China," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 61-80, March.
    11. Diego Comin & Norman Loayza & Farooq Pasha & Luis Serven, 2014. "Medium Term Business Cycles in Developing Countries," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 209-245, October.
    12. Sean Joss Gossel, 2020. "FDI and Elections in Sub-Saharan Africa," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(4), pages 1151-1172, September.
    13. Ricardo Hausmann & Lant Pritchett & Dani Rodrik, 2005. "Growth Accelerations," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 303-329, December.
    14. Phoebe W. Ishak & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2023. "A Resource-Rich Neighbor Is a Misfortune: The Spatial Distribution of the Resource Curse in Brazil," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(4), pages 1213-1247.
    15. Halmai Peter & Vasary Viktoria, 2009. "Economic Growth and Convergence in the European Union," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1, pages 171-188, May.
    16. Will Martin & Kym Anderson, 2007. "The Doha agenda and agricultural trade reform: the role of economic analysis," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 37(s1), pages 77-87, December.
    17. Stimpfle, Alexander & Stadelmann, David, 2015. "The Impact of Fundamental Development Factors on Different Income Groups: International Evidence," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113128, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. Jean-Francois Mercier, 2022. "Revisiting EM economic development and convergence," Occasional Bulletin of Economic Notes 11039, South African Reserve Bank.
    19. Giuseppe Carone & Cécile Denis & Kieran Mc Morrow & Gilles Mourre & Werner Röger, 2006. "Long-term labour productivity and GDP projections for the EU25 Member States : a production function framework," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 253, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    20. L. ALAN WINTERS & NEIL McCULLOCH & ANDREW McKAY, 2015. "Trade Liberalization and Poverty: The Evidence So Far," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Non-Tariff Barriers, Regionalism and Poverty Essays in Applied International Trade Analysis, chapter 14, pages 271-314, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • Q32 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Прокляття ресурсів in Wikipedia Ukranian
    2. Ресурстар қарғысы in Wikipedia Kazakh
    3. Luonnonvarojen kirous in Wikipedia Finnish
    4. Ресурсное проклятие in Wikipedia Russian
    5. Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth (NBER 1995) in ReplicationWiki
    6. Resursförbannelsen in Wikipedia Swedish
    7. Maledizione delle risorse in Wikipedia Italian
    8. 資源の呪い in Wikipedia Japanese
    9. Ressourcenfluch in Wikipedia German
    10. Armut in Wikipedia German
    11. Kutukan sumber daya in Wikipedia Indonesian

    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:nbr:nberwo:5398. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.