Investigacion

Auty (1993) and Sachs and Warner (1997) reignited the line of argument of the resource curse: the idea that natural resource wealth has negative net effects on the development of nations. However, the result has been found to be highly dependent on the types of variables used to represent natural resource wealth (Brunnschweiler, 2007) and similar questions can raised about variables used to represent being " cursed ". In this paper we pursue the hunt for better variables by looking at the relationship between average income from natural resources per person and a wide array of key development indicators: Adjusted National Net Income, GDP per capita, an aggregate of services and industrialized goods, inequality measured by the Gini index, Poverty, the Human Development Index, the Prosperity Index, the Social Progress Index and the Fragile State Index. We do this on a global scale between 1970 and 2010. On the contrary, we find that natural resource wealth is positively linked to development. We suggest, alternatively, that much of the actual cases where abundant natural resources hurt nations have been cases of common theft by tyrants, often backed by imperial powers.

Auty, Sachs and Warner rekindled the argument that presents abundance as a curse: the idea that a wealth of natural resources has, at the end, negative effects on the development of a nation. However, this result has been shown to be highly dependent on the variables used to represent natural resources’ wealth, the same can be said about the vari- ables used to represent this wealth as a “curse”. In this paper we look for better variables, examining the relationship between the median income per capita coming from natural resources and a wide range of the main development indicators: adjusted GDP, GDP per capita, an aggregate of services and industrial goods, inequality meassured by the Gini coeffi- cient, poverty, the human development index, a prosperity index, the so- cial progress index, and an index meassuring a state’s fragility. We do this at a global scale focusing on the period from 1970 to 2010. We find that natural resources’ wealth is positively related to development. We suggest, as an alternative, that a large number of cases in which a great wealth of natural resources seems to worsen the development of nations due to the pillage perpetrated by tyrants, frequently with the backing of the impe- rial powers.