Publication

Apr 2011

This review of the literature shows that resource booms have a broad impact on economy, society and politics of the respective countries. After initial optimism that resource wealth would offer an easy road to development, opposing empirical evidence from resource countries have led to the resource curse paradigm, which claims that a resource boom is more a problem than a solution. This paper identifies several weaknesses of the resource curse literature. It argues that the negative consequences of a resource boom are not a 'curse' in the sense of an unavoidable fate or destiny, but rather the result of specific policy failures.

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Author Andreas Heinrich
Series FSO Working Papers
Issue 114
Publisher Research Centre for East European Studies (FSO)
Copyright © 2011 Forschungsstelle Osteuropa
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