Macro cross-country data and micro US country data indicate that resource rich regions have small and productive manufacturing sectors and large and unproductive non-manufacturing sectors. We suggest a process of specialization to explain these facts. Windfall revenue induces labor to move from...

What part of the rising trend in the oil price is driven by structural transformation in China and India? Will continued structural transformation in these countries result in a permanently higher oil price? I identify an inverted-U shaped relationship in the data between aggregate oil intensity...

The volatility of unanticipated output growth in income per capita is detrimental to long-run development,controlling for initial income per capita, population growth, human capital,investment, openness and natural resource dependence. This effect is significant and robust over awide range of...

Cross-country evidence is presented on resource dependence and the link between volatility and growth. First, growth depends negatively on volatility of unanticipated output growth independent of initial income per capita, the average investment share, initial human capital, trade openness, the...

We criticize existing empirical results on the detrimental effects of natural resource dependence on the rate of economic growth after controlling for institutional quality, openness, and initial income. These results do not survive once we use instrumental variables techniques to correct for...

Brunnschweiler and Bulte (2008) provide cross-country evidence that the resource curse is a “red herring” once one corrects for endogeneity of resource exports and allows resource abundance affect growth. Their results show that resource exports are no longer significant while the value of...

This paper analyses the e¤ect of a resource discovery on an open economy with endogenous directed technical change. Technical progress depends on entrepreneurs who produce (or adopt) technology, and endogenously choose which sector to operate in. The static e¤ect of a resource discovery is de-...

The paper develops a theoretical model with different channels through which energy affects economic growth. The conditions for a crowding out of capital accumulation by intensive energy use are derived. In the empirical part, estimations using a system with five simultaneous equations for a...

Brock and Taylor (2010) argue that the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) - a hump shaped relationship between emissions and income per capita - is driven by falling GDP growth rates associated with Solow type convergence. I test the importance of their mechanism as a driver of emissions by...

Oil has been a curse for Cameroon, one of the potentially richest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the discovery of oil in 1977 and initial prudent management accentuated hopes, Cameroon has become an example of growth collapse. GDP contracted by 5% on average per year, a combined 27% over...