The World Bank Economic Review Advance Access originally published online on September 28, 2005
The World Bank Economic Review 2005 19(2):141-174; doi:10.1093/wber/lhi010
The Varieties of Resource Experience: Natural Resource Export Structures and the Political Economy of Economic Growth
Jonathan Isham is assistant professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College; his email address is jisham{at}middlebury.edu.
Michael Woolcock is senior social scientist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank and lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; his email address is mwoolcock{at}worldbank.org.
Lant Pritchett is lead socioeconomist in the South Asia Social Development Unit at the World Bank; his email address is lpritchett{at}worldbank.org.
Gwen Busby is a graduate student in the Department of Forest Resources at Oregon State University; her email address is gwenbusby{at}oregonstate.edu.
Many oil, mineral, and plantation crop–based economies experienced a substantial deceleration in growth following the commodity boom and bust of the 1970s and early 1980s. This article illustrates how countries dependent on point source natural resources (those extracted from a narrow geographic or economic base, such as oil and minerals) and plantation crops are predisposed to heightened economic and social divisions and weakened institutional capacity. This in turn impedes their ability to respond effectively to shocks, which previous studies have shown to be essential for sustaining rising levels of prosperity. Analysis of data on classifications of export structure, controlling for a wide array of other potential determinants of governance, shows that point source– and coffee and cocoa–exporting countries do relatively poorly across an array of governance indicators. These governance effects are not associated simply with being a natural resource exporter. Countries with natural resource exports that are diffuse—relying primarily on livestock and agricultural produce from small family farms—do not show the same strong effects—and have had more robust growth recoveries.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  S. R. Bond and A. Malik Natural resources, export structure, and investment Oxf. Econ. Pap., October 1, 2009; 61(4): 675 - 702. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. N. Brunnschweiler and E. H. Bulte Natural resources and violent conflict: resource abundance, dependence, and the onset of civil wars Oxf. Econ. Pap., October 1, 2009; 61(4): 651 - 674. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 O. Cadot, L. Dutoit, and J. de Melo The Elimination of Madagascar's Vanilla Marketing Board, 10 Years on J. Afr. Econ., June 1, 2009; 18(3): 388 - 430. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|