The manner in which governments charge mineral resource producers has been the subject of considerable debate. In particular, there is a continuing debate about whether royalties should be reduced or eliminated, the preferred alternative then being some variant of an income-based charge such as...

Our goal is to show that contrary to the claims made in several recent papers, the effect of a large endowment of oil and other mineral resources on long-term economic growth of countries has been on balance positive. Moreover, the claims of a negative effect of oil and mineral wealth on the...