The Resource Curse and Fiscal Policy Volatility

Using data from 1980 to 2004, we show that greater fiscal policy volatility acts as a transmission mechanism for the resource curse. Resource exports dominate political and institutional variables as determinants of fiscal policy volatility, with fiscal policy volatility being a significant determinant of growth. The existence of a resource curse is confirmed, in the sense that a higher ratio of natural resource exports to total merchandise exports is associated with significantly slower per capita GDP growth. There are no statistically significant differences between the effects of point-source and diffuse resource exports.