Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations

The African continent is endowed with rich natural resources, including minerals and fossil fuels. Production and exports in Africa's resource-rich economies are highly concentrated in natural resource-based products, but these economies show little evidence of structural change toward high value-ad...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mulwa, Richard, Mariara, Jane
Format: Artículo preliminar
Language:Inglés
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148043
_version_ 1855534486642491392
author Mulwa, Richard
Mariara, Jane
author_browse Mariara, Jane
Mulwa, Richard
author_facet Mulwa, Richard
Mariara, Jane
author_sort Mulwa, Richard
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The African continent is endowed with rich natural resources, including minerals and fossil fuels. Production and exports in Africa's resource-rich economies are highly concentrated in natural resource-based products, but these economies show little evidence of structural change toward high value-added activities outside the natural resource sector. Using a sample of 47 African countries, this study aims to explain the impact of natural resources on Africa’s economic growth and other factors explaining growth in the continent in the wake of many natural resource discoveries. We use OLS regressions and seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) to achieve this objective. In the OLS regressions, the share of primary resource production to GDP; share of mineral production to GDP; share of oil production to GDP; and total share of all natural resources to GDP were used as measures of natural resource endowment. Results indicate that there is a negative but insignificant relationship between the share of total natural resource abundance to GDP and per capita GDP growth. However, when this resource endowment measure is decomposed to individual components, the share of primary production and the share of mineral resources have a negative relationship with GDP growth, while the share of oil production has a positive relationship with growth. This indicates that there is a natural resource curse effect, especially in economies rich in primary resources and mineral resources, but no such effect in oil-rich states. We also test whether this natural resource curse can be explained by market mechanisms (Dutch Disease) or institutional quality mechanisms. Results from this analysis show that improved government effectiveness and an increase in the corruption perception index (i.e., a reduction in corruption) do improve the property rights index GDP growth.
format Artículo preliminar
id CGSpace148043
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher International Food Policy Research Institute
publisherStr International Food Policy Research Institute
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1480432025-11-06T07:10:36Z Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations Mulwa, Richard Mariara, Jane natural resources inflation value added The African continent is endowed with rich natural resources, including minerals and fossil fuels. Production and exports in Africa's resource-rich economies are highly concentrated in natural resource-based products, but these economies show little evidence of structural change toward high value-added activities outside the natural resource sector. Using a sample of 47 African countries, this study aims to explain the impact of natural resources on Africa’s economic growth and other factors explaining growth in the continent in the wake of many natural resource discoveries. We use OLS regressions and seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) to achieve this objective. In the OLS regressions, the share of primary resource production to GDP; share of mineral production to GDP; share of oil production to GDP; and total share of all natural resources to GDP were used as measures of natural resource endowment. Results indicate that there is a negative but insignificant relationship between the share of total natural resource abundance to GDP and per capita GDP growth. However, when this resource endowment measure is decomposed to individual components, the share of primary production and the share of mineral resources have a negative relationship with GDP growth, while the share of oil production has a positive relationship with growth. This indicates that there is a natural resource curse effect, especially in economies rich in primary resources and mineral resources, but no such effect in oil-rich states. We also test whether this natural resource curse can be explained by market mechanisms (Dutch Disease) or institutional quality mechanisms. Results from this analysis show that improved government effectiveness and an increase in the corruption perception index (i.e., a reduction in corruption) do improve the property rights index GDP growth. 2016-10-26 2024-06-21T09:23:43Z 2024-06-21T09:23:43Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148043 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Mulwa, Richard; and Mariara, Jane. 2016. Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations. AGRODEP Working Paper 0029. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148043
spellingShingle natural resources
inflation
value added
Mulwa, Richard
Mariara, Jane
Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations
title Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations
title_full Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations
title_fullStr Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations
title_full_unstemmed Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations
title_short Natural resource curse in Africa: Dutch Disease and institutional explanations
title_sort natural resource curse in africa dutch disease and institutional explanations
topic natural resources
inflation
value added
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148043
work_keys_str_mv AT mulwarichard naturalresourcecurseinafricadutchdiseaseandinstitutionalexplanations
AT mariarajane naturalresourcecurseinafricadutchdiseaseandinstitutionalexplanations