The mineral economies are an important group of developing countries which have suffered a "resource curse" over the past 20 years--showing a poorer performance than resource-deficient neighbors. This book draws upon case-studies and analysis of nine countries to demonstrate the difficulties currently faced and the policies which will be required in the future in order to take advantage of finite mineral resources to maintain the economic and social conditions for sustaining growth.

Sustainable Development in Mineral Economies

Business & Money

Mikesell, Raymond F.

Auty, Richard M.

Economics

Clarendon Press

The resource curse is a variant of a wider rent curse that can also be driven by geopolitical rent, regulatory rent, and labour rent. Total rent can therefore be from one-tenth to two-fifths of GDP and sometimes more. Rent is detached from the activity that generates it and is up for grabs so it feeds contents for its capture and its deployment can radically impact the development trajectory for better or worse, all too often for worse. The Rent Curse: Natural Resources, Policy Choice, and Economic Development studies two rent driven models to suggest that low rent incentivizes the elite to grow the economy efficiently, whereas high rent encourages rent siphoning for immediate enrichment at the expense of long-term growth. It looks at low rent Mauritius and high rent Trinidad and Tobago to show that low rent stimulates rapid and relatively egalitarian economic growth with incremental democratization, whereas high rent inhibits competitive diversification and frequently causes protracted growth collapses. The post-war prioritization of industry has proved a double edged sword. The Rent Curse employs rent driven models to explain why low rent East Asia has closed the income gap with advanced economies; why rent rich Latin America may be de-industrializing; why agricultural neglect launched sub-Saharan Africa on a false start to economic development; why South Asia pioneers growth through export services; and why governmenets in the oil-rich Gulf states raised the incomes of nationals without conferring the skills to sustain them.

The Rent Curse: Natural Resources, Policy Choice, and Economic Development

Furlonge, Haydn I

Oxford University Press

This authoritative new study provides a unique comparative analysis of postwar economic performance within the developing world. Using the most up-to-date statistics, it explains the diverging economic achievements of five main types of developing country. Richard Auty focuses on internal policies and particularly on the impact of natural resource endowment on policy choice. The tendency for well-endowed countries to underperform in relation to their potential is noted and explained in terms of the emerging 'resource curse' thesis.  The author argues persuasively that economic policies which secure rapid and equitable per capita economic growth can now be identified. As a result, priority is now being placed on environmentally-sustainable development and political pluralism.  Within this broad thesis, the book pursues five central themes: rural neglect; income inequality; hyperubanization; unequal terms of trade; and the role of government in the development process. Each theme is discus with reference to one of the five country types, noting the key implications for the other four.  Blending economic, environmental and socio-political perspectives, 'Patterns of Development' offers a fresh approach to economic development and will be welcomed by those seeking an accessible and up-to-date introduction to the subject.

Patterns of Development: Resources, Policy and Economic Growth

Hodder Education Publishers

First published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Approaches to Sustainable Development (Global Development and the Environment)

Brown, Katrina

Routledge

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