Increasing Natural Resource Rents from Farmland: A Curse or a Blessing for the Rural Poor?

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Hvid
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
Resource Rents ◽  
Welfare Losses ◽  
Natural Resource Rents

AbstractThe literature on the resource curse suggests that countries with large natural resource rents and weak institutions may experience rent seeking conflicts among different groups, potentially resulting in high inequality and welfare losses. While agricultural land has so far been categorized as a diffuse resource with low economic value, this categorization may no longer be appropriate, because demand for land is currently on the rise, and may continue to increase in the future. This study presents and discusses recent theoretical and empirical approaches to analyzing the effects of high-value agricultural land on rent seeking and rent distribution. Results suggest that the potential for small scale farmers to organize and obtain political power determines the extent of rent seeking and rent distribution, and that while more democratic institutions may increase the share of rents going to the farmers, they may have adverse welfare effects, because they may increase the competition for rents among groups, and hence the amount of resources spent on rent seeking.

Rent-Seeking and Criminal Politicians: Evidence from Mining Booms

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Sam Asher ◽  
Paul Novosad
Keyword(s):  
Moral Hazard ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Direct Influence ◽  
Price Shocks ◽  
Mining Operations ◽  
Mining Sector ◽  
Resource Rents ◽  
Natural Resource Rents ◽  
And Behavior

Abstract We study how natural resource rents affect the selection and behavior of holders of public office. Using global price shocks to thirty-one minerals and nationwide geological and political data from India, we show that local mineral rent shocks cause the election of politicians charged with serious crimes. We also find a moral hazard effect: politicians commit more crimes and accumulate greater wealth when mineral prices rise during their terms in office. These politicians have direct influence over mining operations but no access to fiscal windfalls from mining; we thus isolate the direct political impacts of mining sector operations.

scholarly journals Natural Resources and Civil Conflict: The Role of Military Expenditures

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 575
Author(s):  
Rabah Arezki ◽  
Markus Brueckner
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Resource Rents ◽  
Important Message ◽  
Military Expenditures ◽  
Natural Resource Rents ◽  
The Relationship

Military expenditures significantly affect the relationship between the risk of civil conflict outbreak and natural resources. We show that a significant positive effect of natural resource rents on the risk of civil conflict outbreak is limited to countries with low military expenditures. In countries with high military expenditures, there is no significant effect of natural resource rents on civil conflict onset. An important message is thus that a conflict resource curse is absent in countries with sufficiently large military expenditures.

Movers, Motives, and Impact of Illegal Small-Scale Mining: A Case Study in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 402-424
Author(s):  
Osman Antwi-Boateng ◽  
Mamudu Akudugu
Keyword(s):  
Resource Curse ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Barriers To Entry ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
High Population Growth ◽  
Capital Development

Abstract This research unravels the agents and driving motivation behind the rise of illegal small-scale mining in Ghana and its impact. This is accomplished via a qualitative study using illegal small-scale mining in the Talensi and Nabdam districts of Ghana as a case study. At the forefront of this phenomenon are rent-seeking elites, whereas structural factors such as rising unemployment and high population growth, as well as opportunistic factors including low barriers to entry, get-rich quick syndrome, and political corruption/weak institutions are fueling it as well. Although there are some economic benefits of illegal small-scale mining, these benefits are undermined by factors associated with the Resource Curse Hypothesis (RCH) or the ‘Paradox of Plenty.’ We argue that most illegal small-scale mining communities are characterized by increased rent-seeking activities by diverse stakeholders particularly the elites, poor investments in human capital development, and weak institutional structures and processes. To sustainably address the illegal small-scale gold mining menace in Ghana, all efforts should be aimed at holistically dealing with the rent-seekers, especially the elites involved, eliminating their motives and removing the conditions that facilitate their involvement.

Nontax Revenue, Social Cleavages, and Authoritarian Stability in Mexico and Kenya: “Internationalization, Institutions, and Political Change” Revisited

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 719-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Social Cleavages ◽  
Resource Rents ◽  
Natural Resource Rents

What determines how authoritarian regimes use internationally attained revenues such as natural resource rents to stay in power? The answer, this article argues, lies partly in the nature of the socioeconomic cleavages in the country. The article presents a comparison of Kenya and Mexico, two countries that experienced similar rises and falls in internationally derived nontax revenue in the context of similar political regimes. The countries differed, however, in their socioeconomic cleavages: In Mexico, cleavages were along sectoral or class lines, whereas in Kenya they were along ethnic lines. The author demonstrates how these differences led governments in the countries to use nontax revenues in different ways, with important consequences in particular for social spending. Despite the recent turn in the resource curse literature emphasizing domestic contextual factors, socioeconomic cleavages have been relatively ignored. The findings here begin to fill that gap, with important implications for several literatures.

Foreign Capital, Natural Resource Rents and Financial Development: A New Approach

2020 ◽  
pp. 097215092096136
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahbaz ◽  
Mohammad Ali Aboutorabi ◽  
Farzaneh Ahmadian Yazdi
Keyword(s):  
Financial Development ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Foreign Capital ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Resource Rents ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Natural Resource Rents ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
The Impact

This article explores the impact of financial development on the ‘natural resources rents–foreign capital accumulation nexus’ in selected natural resource–rich countries during 1970Q1–2016Q4. In doing so, we propose a new approach by applying the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) rolling regression technique for our empirical purpose. The results show that financial development has a positive and significant effect on the way natural resource rents affect foreign capital in the case of Australia, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt and Peru in both the short run and the long run. We achieve the same results in the case of Colombia and Iran too, but just in the long run. Also, short-term and long-term negative effects of financial development on the rents–foreign capital nexus are witnessed just in the case of Algeria. We provide some empirical evidence for further robustness of our findings. Finally, we suggest that there is a necessity for the development of the financial system in natural resource–rich countries to reach higher levels of foreign capital, which has a crucial role in their economic growth.

Growth Recoveries (from Collapses)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Francisco Meneses ◽  
José Luis Saboin
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rate ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Exchange Rate Regime ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Resource Rents ◽  
Financial Account ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Economic Collapse ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Natural Resource Rents

This paper analyzes the behavior of a long list of economic variables during episodes of recovery from an economic collapse. A set of stylized facts is proposed so as to depict what in this work is called \saygrowth recoveries. Through different estimation techniques, it is inferred under which conditions and policies the likelihood of experiencing a growth recovery increases. The results of the paper indicate that collapses tend to occur in countries with high dependence on natural resource rents, macroeconomic mismanagement, low levels of democratic accountability and rule of law and high levels of conflict. Recoveries, on the other hand, tend to be longer than collapses and are more likely to occur in contexts of: improved external conditions, less natural resource rents, balanced fiscal accounts, where the exchange rate corrects but within a more fixed exchange rate regime and a more restricted financial account, and where there are: rebounds in private consumption, increases in international trade and improvements on property rights.

Natural resource rents, political regimes and terrorism in Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 50-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazeem B. Ajide ◽  
Juliet I. Adenuga ◽  
Ibrahim D. Raheem
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Resource Rents ◽  
Natural Resource Rents
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