Oil discoveries can constitute a major positive and exogenous shock to economic activity, but the resource curse hypothesis would suggest they might also be detrimental to growth over the long run. This paper utilizes a new methodology for estimating growth underperformance to examine the extent...

This paper reviews resource sector developments in 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that made their first (major) petroleum discoveries during the most recent commodity boom. The analysis, which goes back to 2001, looks at sector forecasts of international organizations, governments, and...

This paper reviews the determinants of Latin America's uneven growth based on an accounting decomposition that breaks down countries' growth (relative to the world) into three trade-related channels: (i) an export pull measuring the traction exerted by the country's exports, (ii) an external...

In this speech by A. W. Clausen, President of the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, he reconfirms the Bank's commitment to do all that it can to help the middle-income member countries with severe debt problems to regain sustained, noninflationary economic growth with social...

This paper uses a computable general equilibrium model Maquette for Millennium Development Goal Simulations (MAMS) calibrated to Mongolia to investigate how the development of major mining projects leads to Dutch disease. The simulations suggest that the process is complex, with the relative...

What are the socioeconomic impacts of resource abundance? Are these effects different at the national and local levels? How could resource booms benefit (or harm) local communities? This paper reviews a vast literature examining these questions, with an emphasis on empirical works. First, the...

This paper examines the relationship between hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon revenues using a probabilistic panel model with data covering 30 resource-rich countries over 1992-2012. It also discusses policy implications for Uganda, a country with recently discovered oil reserves. The findings...

The halving of oil prices, which happened in a short period between late 2014 and the first months of 2015, has generated major terms of trade losses for oil exporting countries. Even if the oil producing sector normally employs a small group of workers and oil export revenues tend to be...

The acceleration of natural resource discoveries across many parts of the developing world has highlighted the urgent need for solutions to the mismanagement of windfalls that has blighted many countries over the past half-century. One proposal involves istributing annually a share of resource...