Economic growth since 1965 has varied inversely with the share of natural capital in national wealth across countries. Four main channels of transmission from abundant natural resources to stunted economic development are discussed: (a) the Dutch disease, (b) rent seeking, (c) overconfidence,...

The 1980s have seen the beginnings of a change of heart among developing country policymakers, as the import-substitution consensus of the previous decade has all but evaporated. It is paradoxical that the 1980s should have become the decade of trade liberalization in LDCs, since this has also...

Water use in the U.S. has followed a remarkable pattern since 1950, not mimicking the almost uninterrupted 110 percent increase in the size of the U.S. population, the relatively steady 570 percent growth in real GDP, and the 220 percent improvement in per capita GDP. After doubling between 1950...

Hotelling's theory predicts that natural resource rents should increase over time. However, technical progress in resource extraction, environmental constraints,or great natural abundance could result in stagnant or declining product prices. Thus, there is no theoretical reason to believe that...

This paper tests the hypothesis that the net of extraction cost price of a natural resource does not change with volume. The hypothesis is shown to he a consequence of Hotelling's theory. The tests are performed on equations estimated by a nonparametric regression (ACE), and we show that the...