IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/124277.html

Oil countries: What kind of capitalism?

Author

Listed:
  • Paldam, Martin
  • Saadaoui, Jamel

Abstract

The paper considers 18 OPEC countries that were low-income countries when oil was found. Oil has given the countries a special path to high income. Normally wealth leads to democracy, but in oil countries it leads to a consolidation of the previous authoritarian rule. Thus, in most cases, oil wealth leads to a conservative political and economic system. Especially the six oil countries on the Arab Peninsula have conservative socio-cultural values, and they are staunchly authoritarian. However, this does not mean that OPEC countries are oriented toward free market policies. They score poorly on legal quality and protection of property rights and consequently, they have some corruption. This gives centralized economic systems dominated by the ruling group. It is a capitalist system, but it is a special oil type of political capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Paldam, Martin & Saadaoui, Jamel, 2025. "Oil countries: What kind of capitalism?," MPRA Paper 124277, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:124277
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/124277/1/MPRA_paper_124277.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mansfield, Edward D. & Snyder, Jack, 2002. "Democratic Transitions, Institutional Strength, and War," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(2), pages 297-337, April.
    2. Paldam,Martin, 2021. "The Grand Pattern of Development and the Transition of Institutions," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316515501, January.
    3. Dani Rodrik & Romain Wacziarg, 2005. "Do Democratic Transitions Produce Bad Economic Outcomes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 50-55, May.
    4. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2024. "Islamic revolution and Anfal," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 200(3), pages 383-401, September.
    5. Corden, W M, 1984. "Booming Sector and Dutch Disease Economics: Survey and Consolidation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(3), pages 359-380, November.
    6. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2011. "Natural Resources: Curse or Blessing?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 366-420, June.
    7. Krueger, Anne O, 1974. "The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 291-303, June.
    8. David L. Epstein & Robert Bates & Jack Goldstone & Ida Kristensen & Sharyn O'Halloran, 2006. "Democratic Transitions," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(3), pages 551-569, July.
      • David Epstein & Robert H. Bates & Jack Goldstone & Ida Kristensen & Sharyn O'Halloran, 2004. "Democratic Transitions," CID Working Papers 101, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    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. Henry Willebald & Marc Badia-Miró & Vicente Pinilla, 2015. "Natural Resources and Economic Development. Some lessons from History," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 1504, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    2. Edouard Mien & Michaël Goujon, 2022. "40 Years of Dutch Disease Literature: Lessons for Developing Countries," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 64(3), pages 351-383, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Shrabani Saha & Kunal Sen, 2019. "The corruption-growth relationship: Do political institutions matter?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-65, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Behzadan, Nazanin & Chisik, Richard & Onder, Harun & Battaile, Bill, 2017. "Does inequality drive the Dutch disease? Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 104-118.
    6. Ben-Salha, Ousama & Dachraoui, Hajer & Sebri, Maamar, 2021. "Natural resource rents and economic growth in the top resource-abundant countries: A PMG estimation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. repec:ocp:rpecon:rp_05-24 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Zhu, Junpeng & Lin, Boqiang, 2022. "Resource dependence, market-oriented reform, and industrial transformation: Empirical evidence from Chinese cities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Omar H. M. N. Bashar & Omar K. M. R. Bashar, 2020. "Resource abundance, financial crisis and economic growth: did resource‐rich countries fare better during the global financial crisis?," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(2), pages 376-395, April.
    10. Tom Ogwang & Frank Vanclay & Arjan van den Assem, 2019. "Rent-Seeking Practices, Local Resource Curse, and Social Conflict in Uganda’s Emerging Oil Economy," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-14, March.
    11. Ohad Raveh, 2013. "Dutch Disease, factor mobility, and the Alberta Effect: the case of federations," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(4), pages 1317-1350, November.
    12. Federico Inchausti-Sintes, 2024. "Avoiding the Dutch Disease in tourism-led economies: reconciling tourism development and sectoral diversification," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 23(2), pages 213-239, May.
    13. Cristián Ducoing, 2025. "A Long-Term Perspective of the Resource Curse Hypothesis," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 2504, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    14. van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2019. "Macro policy responses to natural resource windfalls and the crash in commodity prices," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 263-282.
    15. Roy, Arup, 2024. "Impacts of economic development, globalization, and gross capital formation on natural resources rents: Evidence from India," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    16. 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).
    17. 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.
    18. Gritsenko, Daria & Efimova, Elena, 2020. "Is there Arctic resource curse? Evidence from the Russian Arctic regions," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    19. Ådne Cappelen & Torbjørn Eika, 2020. "Immigration and the Dutch disease A counterfactual analysis of the Norwegian resource boom 2004-2013," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 669-690, July.
    20. Mahadeo, Scott M.R. & Heinlein, Reinhold & Legrenzi, Gabriella D., 2019. "Energy contagion analysis: A new perspective with application to a small petroleum economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 890-903.
    21. 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).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • P26 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Property Rights
    • P28 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Natural Resources; Environment

    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:pra:mprapa:124277. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.