Brunei and Norway are two countries located almost on opposite sides of the world. The countries are quite different in a number of aspects. However, they share some common features. The obvious similarity is that the discovery of oil has changed the economic realities in a fundamental way. The...

Diversification of the economy, the aim being to decrease economic dependence on oil and gas, has been propagated for years as the paramount task of Brunei policy-makers. Although this is obviously a sensible objective, it has proved to be a difficult goal to achieve in practice. The main thesis...