What Have We Learned about the Resource Curse?

What is it about?

Since 2001, hundreds of studies have examined the "political resource curse," meaning the claim that natural resource wealth tends to hurt a country's governance. This article provides an overview of the latest research on this issue, focusing on evidence that resource wealth tends to hurt government accountability, increase corruption, and boost the likelihood that some states will suffer from violent conflict.

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Why is it important?

Dozens of countries are economically dependent on natural resource wealth - particularly in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia. Understanding the resource curse can help explain why many of them are politically troubled. It can also give us insights into broader questions about political economy - for example, about the ways that taxation, economic diversification, and state ownership can help or hurt the quality of governance.