It is often argued that, ethically, resource rents should accrue to all citizens. Yet in reality the rents from exploiting national resources are often concentrated in the hands of a few. If resource rents were to be taxed, on the other hand, substantial amounts of public money could be raised...

For a typical developing country, this paper shows that once inter-sectoral linkages are taken into account, closing the productivity gap in a number of services gives bigger gains in aggregate productivity than closing it in agriculture or in manufacturing. This is performed in the context of...