An important economic paradox in the economic literature is that countries with abundant natural resources are poor in terms of real gross domestic product per capita. This paradox, known as the ...‘resource curse’, is contrary to the conventional intuition that natural resources help to improve economic growth and prosperity. Using panel data for 95 countries, this study revisits the resource curse paradox in terms of oil resources abundance for the period 1980–2017. In addition, the study examines the role of trade openness in influencing the relationship between oil abundance and economic growth. The study finds trade openness is a possible avenue to reduce the resource curse, in our sample, trade openness reduces oil curse by around 25%. Trade openness allows countries to obtain competitive prices for their resources in the international market and access advanced technologies to extract resources more efficiently. Therefore, natural resource–rich economies can reduce the resource curse by increasing exposure to international trade.
•Using panel data for 95 countries, this study revisits the resource curse paradox in terms of oil resources abundance for the period 1980–2017•We also investigate the role of trade openness in reducing the oil course•Results suggest that having an abundance of oil resources plays a significant role in slowing economic growth•Our study shows that around 25% of the decline in GDP per capita caused by the oil curse can be mitigated by trade opening policies•Our hypothesis is that increased trade helps to lessen the resource curse by reallocating resources more efficiently
This paper highlights the importance of natural resource concentration and ethnic group regional concentration for ethnic conflict. The existence of multiple conflict terrains (and hence multiple ...threat points) is the source of bargaining failure, similar to the one determined by the presence of offensive advantages. The theory predicts war to be more likely when resource concentration and group concentration are high, and the empirical analysis, both at the country level and at the ethnic group level, confirms the essential role of geographic concentration variables for civil war.
•Natural resource concentration and ethnic group concentration matter for ethnic conflict.•We find bargaining failure due to multiple conflict terrains.•We construct a novel measure of oil inequality: Oil Gini.•We perform a country and ethnic group level regression analysis.•War is found to be more likely when resource concentration and group concentration are high.
Scholars of the resource curse argue that reliance on primary commodities destabilizes governments: price fluctuations generate windfalls or periods of austerity that provoke or intensify civil ...conflict. Over 350 quantitative studies test this claim, but prominent results point in different directions, making it difficult to discern which results reliably hold across contexts. We conduct a meta-analysis of 46 natural experiments that use difference-in-difference designs to estimate the causal effect of commodity price changes on armed civil conflict. We show that commodity price changes, on average, do not change the likelihood of conflict. However, there are cross-cutting effects by commodity type. In line with theory, we find price increases for labor-intensive agricultural commodities reduce conflict, while increases in the price of oil, a capital-intensive commodity, provoke conflict. We also find that price increases for lootable artisanal minerals provoke conflict. Our meta-analysis consolidates existing evidence, but also highlights opportunities for future research.
To accelerate industrial structure adjustment and effectively mitigate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, this study aims to investigate the carbon emission reduction effect of China's industrial ...structure adjustment. For this purpose, considering the potential spatial effect, the spatial econometric technique is utilized. Also, the industrial structure adjustment is divided into industrial structure upgrading and industrial structure optimization for heterogeneous analysis. Then, we empirically explore the mediating role of energy efficiency in the relationship between industrial structure adjustment and CO2 emissions in China. Three findings are drawn from the estimation results: (1) the index of industrial structure upgrading in China has gradually increased, while the index of industrial structure optimization has displayed a slightly downward trend; (2) industrial structure upgrading shows a significant spatial negative correlation with CO2 emissions, while industrial structure optimization affects CO2 emissions positively; and (3) industrial structure upgrading can reduce CO2 emissions by improving energy efficiency, and industrial structure optimization can exacerbate the greenhouse effect by impeding energy efficiency improvements. Based on these findings, we make several policy suggestions for mitigating CO2 emissions and promoting industrial structure adjustment in China.
•The greenhouse effect of China's industrial structure adjustment (ISA) is explored.•Industrial structure upgrading can reduce CO2 emissions.•Industrial structure optimization cannot promote carbon emission reduction.•Upgrading industrial structure mitigates CO2 by improving energy efficiency.•Industrial structure optimization promotes CO2 by inhibiting the improvement of energy efficiency.
We examine the development of China’s environmental regulatory system over nearly 50 years and review economic studies of its effectiveness. China’s environmental regulation system has evolved over ...time into a complex and multilayered labyrinth. However, studies in the economics literature tend to focus on a few policies that span periods for which data are available and that allow causal identification. While the literature suggests that the policies have been generally effective in improving environmental quality, it also reveals several challenges for conducting empirical analyses: a firm’s regulatory status is frequently endogenous, data quality is variable, although improving over time, and overlapping policies may undermine traditional identification approaches. Further research is needed to comprehensively evaluate the cost-effectiveness of China’s environmental regulations, identify the interactions of multiple policies, and extend the analyses beyond water and air to also include soil and other types of pollution.
Providing food, timber, energy, housing, and other goods and services, while maintaining ecosystem functions and biodiversity that underpin their sustainable supply, is one of the great challenges of ...our time. Understanding the drivers of land-use change and how policies can alter land-use change will be critical to meeting this challenge. Here we project land-use change in the contiguous United States to 2051 under two plausible baseline trajectories of economic conditions to illustrate how differences in underlying market forces can have large impacts on land-use with cascading effects on ecosystem services and wildlife habitat. We project a large increase in croplands (28.2 million ha) under a scenario with high crop demand mirroring conditions starting in 2007, compared with a loss of cropland (11.2 million ha) mirroring conditions in the 1990s. Projected land-use changes result in increases in carbon storage, timber production, food production from increased yields, and >10% decreases in habitat for 25% of modeled species. We also analyze policy alternatives designed to encourage forest cover and natural landscapes and reduce urban expansion. Although these policy scenarios modify baseline land-use patterns, they do not reverse powerful underlying trends. Policy interventions need to be aggressive to significantly alter underlying land-use change trends and shift the trajectory of ecosystem service provision.
Ecosystem transformation involves the emergence of persistent ecological or social–ecological systems that diverge, dramatically and irreversibly, from prior ecosystem structure and function. Such ...transformations are occurring at increasing rates across the planet in response to changes in climate, land use, and other factors. Consequently, a dynamic view of ecosystem processes that accommodates rapid, irreversible change will be critical for effectively conserving fish, wildlife, and other natural resources, and maintaining ecosystem services. However, managing ecosystems toward states with novel structure and function is an inherently unpredictable and difficult task. Managers navigating ecosystem transformation can benefit from considering broader objectives, beyond a traditional focus on resisting ecosystem change, by also considering whether accepting inevitable change or directing it along some desirable pathway is more feasible (that is, practical and appropriate) under some circumstances (the RAD framework). By explicitly acknowledging transformation and implementing an iterative RAD approach, natural resource managers can be deliberate and strategic in addressing profound ecosystem change.
We examine whether and how CEO foreign experience affects firm’s green innovation. Using a sample of Chinese public companies and hand-collected CEO foreign experience data, we document a positive ...association between CEO foreign experience and corporate green innovation. Furthermore, consistent with the view that CEOs with foreign experience would play a more significant role when provided with more resources, we find that the positive relationship is more pronounced in less financially constrained firms, in state-owned enterprises, and in less competitive industries. Additional analyses indicate that enhanced environmental ethics and general competency are two potential mechanisms through which CEO foreign experience affects corporate green innovation. Finally, we find that CEO foreign experience is positively related to green innovation quality and internationalization. Collectively, these findings suggest that CEO foreign experience is a significant factor for corporate green innovation in emerging markets.
•Sustainability is converting natural to human and produced capital via discovery, extraction, appropriation, and reinvestment.•We estimate causal effects of energy resource conversion on Genuine ...Savings, the main metric of weak sustainable development.•Energy extraction and exports jointly lower Genuine Savings, except for countries with strong institutions.•Comparative advantage in the traded energy sector fosters sustainable development for selected countries.•Countries lacking a comparative advantage can convert energy resources sustainably by avoiding exports.
Natural resource-rich countries face the challenge of harnessing their resources for sustainable economic development. Although existing literature extensively studies the resource curse phenomenon, gaps remain in understanding exactly how natural resource use impacts sustainable development. This study addresses this gap by analyzing how the natural resource conversion process affects sustainable economic development, using Genuine Savings as the key indicator. The natural resource conversion process encompasses four distinct stages—discovery, extraction, appropriation, and (re-)investments—that transform natural resources into human- and produced capital assets to achieve sustainable development, consistent with the weak sustainability paradigm. Employing a comprehensive dataset spanning 118 countries over 20 years, we use an instrumental variable approach to estimate the causal effects of four variables corresponding to the four stages of conversion: natural capital, natural resource rents, resource exports, and government resource revenues. Results show that energy rents (oil, gas, and coal) and exports jointly decrease Genuine Savings, except in countries with good institutions. Contrary to previous studies, we demonstrate that economies specializing heavily in energy exports successfully leverage their comparative advantage, increasing Genuine Savings. Other countries achieve sustainable development through energy extraction and domestic use of resources. We conclude that successful resource management for sustainable economic development aims to achieve two objectives. First, it seeks to reduce energy exports when at a comparative disadvantage or harness them when at a comparative advance. Second, it focuses on improving institutional quality.
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