An assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) using the Bayesian corruption indicator

Advocated across the international community for more than 15 years, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is now widely recognised as a hallmark anti-corruption scheme in the extractive sector. This study presents an assessment of the relationship between EITI membership and countries’ progress in tackling corruption. It provides the first study that looks at this issue using a ‘state-of-the-art’ indicator called the Bayesian Corruption Indicator. It also introduces an innovative estimation strategy combining entropy balancing with a difference-in-difference framework to address the baseline inequalities that exist between member and non-member countries. Contrary to the findings of many leading studies, this analysis finds corruption scores have improved significantly among EITI member countries. In particular, the evidence is strongest when we examine a sub-group of EITI members designated fully compliant with the initiative's transparency standards.

The Unwritten License: The Social License to Operate in Latin America's Extractive Sector

The Latin America and the Caribbean region has benefited significantly from economic growth driven by the extractive sector. At the same time, the region has experienced high levels of conflicts related to this sector. This paper presents an overview of citizens' perceptions of the extractive industries in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Using a representative sample for each country, we identify regional and country-specific determinants of the Social License to Operate (SLO). The SLO is an unwritten license of social approval accorded to extractive projects by citizens. In this paper, we investigate a generalized version of the SLO, capturing public sentiment toward the mining and the oil and gas sectors in general. While our findings confirm that perceptions vary across countries, we show that governance is the strongest predictor of trust between citizens and the extractive sector, which is consistent with the evidence in the literature. In addition, procedural justice, distributive justice, and nationalism play essential roles in shaping individuals' attitudes. These findings suggest that strengthening government institutions could contribute to the prevention of conflict around extractive industries.

Challenges in Managing Waste from Extractive Industries during the Transition to a Circular Economy Model in Poland

Proper waste management is an essential part of the efficient use of natural resources and sustainable economic growth. One of the largest waste streams in the European Union and in Poland is waste from extractive industries. Appropriate treatment of this waste stream should therefore be a priority, based on the applicable waste hierarchy. The use of the waste management hierarchy was confirmed by the analyzed data. Despite the growing demand for mineral resources, the amount of generated extractive waste is decreasing and waste recovery is increasing. The paper presents the main challenges in the management of waste from the mining industry in Poland, taking into account not only the existing regulations but also future actions resulting from the Polish Road Map toward the transition to a circular economy.

Effectiveness of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

<p>I investigate two aspects of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The first issue is the effectiveness of the EITI in mitigating corruption in EITI implementing countries. The second issue is the economic value of extractive companies’ information disclosed under the EITI implementation regime. I address the first issue by examining the influence of EITI implementation experience on the perceived control of corruption in EITI implementing countries. Specifically, I address two questions (i) whether EITI implementation experience is associated with improved control of corruption for all implementing countries taken together, and (ii) whether the effect of EITI implementation experience on the perceived level of corruption varies across implementing countries. Based on the sampled 51 implementing countries over the period 2003-2015, I find that across-the-board, EITI implementation experience is not associated with improved control of corruption. The findings show that the interaction term for EITI implementation experience with Sub-Saharan African countries is positively associated with improved control of corruption. Thus, the negative effect associated with EITI implementation experience is less for Sub-Saharan African countries. I address the second issue by investigating the economic value of extractive companies’ exploration payments information disclosed under the EITI implementation process. Using the United States Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (USEITI), I examine the impact of disclosure of non-tax payments by extractive companies to the US government, as an illustration of the economic value of information disclosed as a result of the EITI. I address two research questions (i) whether investors react to the initial disclosure of the USEITI information and hence whether the information is of value to investors, and (ii) the value relevance of this information over the whole period for which this information has been available. The issue employs two separate but related methods to examine these questions. First, it employs a standard event study methodology, to test for trading volume and price reaction, around the event date of the first-time release of this information. Second, it employs the Collins, Pincus, and Xie, (1999) adaptation of the Ohlson (1995) model to examine the value relevance of USEITI information disclosure over the period 2013-2016. The results show that the USEITI disclosure evoked both trading volume and price reactions, thus suggesting that the disclosure of extractive payments had information content relevant to price setting. The price reaction, as evidenced in the cross-sectional regression, is associated with oil and gas firms, and the working capital and asset turnover of the sample extractive companies. The results also indicate that the continuing disclosure of the USEITI information was value relevant. Taken together, the findings from the thesis suggest that the EITI has been relatively effective in lessening the level of perceived corruption in the countries in dire need of reform and more importantly, the information released under the EITI implementation regime has economic value both at initial release and subsequent continued release. Thus, policymakers and managers of companies operating in countries rich in natural resources need to take note of the impact of EITI implementation.</p>

Effectiveness of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

<p>I investigate two aspects of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The first issue is the effectiveness of the EITI in mitigating corruption in EITI implementing countries. The second issue is the economic value of extractive companies’ information disclosed under the EITI implementation regime. I address the first issue by examining the influence of EITI implementation experience on the perceived control of corruption in EITI implementing countries. Specifically, I address two questions (i) whether EITI implementation experience is associated with improved control of corruption for all implementing countries taken together, and (ii) whether the effect of EITI implementation experience on the perceived level of corruption varies across implementing countries. Based on the sampled 51 implementing countries over the period 2003-2015, I find that across-the-board, EITI implementation experience is not associated with improved control of corruption. The findings show that the interaction term for EITI implementation experience with Sub-Saharan African countries is positively associated with improved control of corruption. Thus, the negative effect associated with EITI implementation experience is less for Sub-Saharan African countries. I address the second issue by investigating the economic value of extractive companies’ exploration payments information disclosed under the EITI implementation process. Using the United States Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (USEITI), I examine the impact of disclosure of non-tax payments by extractive companies to the US government, as an illustration of the economic value of information disclosed as a result of the EITI. I address two research questions (i) whether investors react to the initial disclosure of the USEITI information and hence whether the information is of value to investors, and (ii) the value relevance of this information over the whole period for which this information has been available. The issue employs two separate but related methods to examine these questions. First, it employs a standard event study methodology, to test for trading volume and price reaction, around the event date of the first-time release of this information. Second, it employs the Collins, Pincus, and Xie, (1999) adaptation of the Ohlson (1995) model to examine the value relevance of USEITI information disclosure over the period 2013-2016. The results show that the USEITI disclosure evoked both trading volume and price reactions, thus suggesting that the disclosure of extractive payments had information content relevant to price setting. The price reaction, as evidenced in the cross-sectional regression, is associated with oil and gas firms, and the working capital and asset turnover of the sample extractive companies. The results also indicate that the continuing disclosure of the USEITI information was value relevant. Taken together, the findings from the thesis suggest that the EITI has been relatively effective in lessening the level of perceived corruption in the countries in dire need of reform and more importantly, the information released under the EITI implementation regime has economic value both at initial release and subsequent continued release. Thus, policymakers and managers of companies operating in countries rich in natural resources need to take note of the impact of EITI implementation.</p>