Natural resource abundance is a blessing for some countries, but a curse for othes. We show that differences across countries in the degree of fiscal decentralisation can contribute to this divergent outcome. First, the paper presents a unified theory that combines political and market...

Previous studies imply that a positive regional fiscal shock, such as a resource boom, strengthens the desire for separation.  In this paper we present a new and opposite perspective.  We construct a model of endogenous fiscal decentralization that builds on two key notions: a trade-off...