Faslnāmah-i Pizhūhish/Nāmah-i Iqtisādī (Dec 2013)
Shortsightedness in Petroleum Dependent Economies with Insufficient Capital
Abstract
The phenomenon of “resource curse” or “paradox of plenty” is inconsistent with the general belief that natural resources always result in economic growth. The present study is focused on this question “why despite the fact that oil exporting developing countries benefit from the most major transfer of wealth without war, such countries suffer from economical failure”. To address the mentioned question, we have relied on a descriptive – analytic approach and employed the framework of institutionalism theory to study “shortsightedness” among decision makers and policymakers of such societies and finding consequences and damages of this trend and effective solutions for these problems. In order to study that how this phenomenon has been created and continues to persist, we have used “historical explanation” and “political economy”. In summary, according to causes specified by mentioned explanatory methods, the main factor was found in weakness of institutional structure. Considering Iran as the case study, this country experienced two shocks of income from petroleum industries in 1971 and 2011. By following the historical origins and considering the political economy of Iran, one can see that the finding of the present article is also true for Iran. In this regard and alongside with other amending solutions, adjustment of budgeting and taxation systems are proposed by the present study as solutions for achieving effective and productive utilization of incomes produced by petroleum industries for the purpose of long term development.
