Tullio Buccellato and Michele Alessandrini :
080_DP98 Natural Resources: a Blessing or a Curse? The Role of Inequality
JEL Classification:
Abstract:
In this paper we offer a novel contribution to the resource curse literature. We offer a theoretical
and empirical analysis to establish that natural resources represent per se a positive factor for countries economic development, but can lead to very unequal income distribution within countries due to their inner characteristic of being easily appropriable. We predict theoretically that the gap between households having access to natural resources and those not having access to natural resources becomes even more marked when raw natural resources are directly exported and do not represent an intermediate input for domestic production. Our empirical results suggest that this is particularly the case for metals and ores.
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