Curse or blessing: economic growth and natural resources (Comparison of the Development of Botswana, Canada, Nigeria and Norway in the Early 21st Century)

Abstract

This paper aims to review the concept of resource curse, to summarize key points from existing literature and apply them on four selected countries at the beginning of the new millennium. The practical part investigates several hypotheses established by comparing research papers on impact of natural resources on the example of two developing countries (Nigeria and Botswana) and two developed countries (Canada and Norway). Specifically, the validity of the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis, Dutch disease symptoms and several hypotheses about a negative impact on political institutions have been verified. The results confirm the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis for selected commodities in the long term and some of the symptoms of Dutch disease in period 2000–2016 in the selected countries. Hypotheses about the impact on the political institutions have not been confirmed. The prices of commodities were identified as a key transmission channel of resource curse in the short run.

Keywords

• resource curse
• natural capital
• economic growth
• Prebisch-Singer hypothesis
• Dutch disease