Natural Resources and Reforms
The authors use a sample of 133 countries to investigate the link between the abundance of natural resources and micro-economic reforms. Previous studies suggest that natural resource abundance gives rise to governments that are less accountable to...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090330092400 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4077 |
| Summary: | The authors use a sample of 133
countries to investigate the link between the abundance of
natural resources and micro-economic reforms. Previous
studies suggest that natural resource abundance gives rise
to governments that are less accountable to the public and
states that are oligarchic, and that it leads to the erosion
of social capital. These factors are likely to hamper
economic reforms. The authors test this hypothesis using
data on micro-economic reforms from the World Bank's
Doing Business database. The results provide a robust
support for the "resource curse" view: a move
from the 75th percentile to the 25th percentile on resource
abundance equals 10.9 percentage points more reform. This is
a large effect given that the mean probability of reform in
the sample is 57.1 percent. |
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