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Cited by 1,128Natural Resources and Economic DevelopmentPolitical Conflict and GovernanceCorruption and Economic Development

Do natural resources fuel authoritarianism? A reappraisal of the resource curse

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HABER, STEPHEN, MENALDO, VICTOR·2011·American Political Science Review
DOI 10.1017/s0003055410000584
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Abstract

A large body of scholarship finds a negative relationship between natural resources and democracy. Extant cross-country regressions, however, assume random effects and are run on panel datasets with relatively short time dimensions. Because natural resource reliance is not an exogenous variable, this is not an effective strategy for uncovering causal relationships. Numerous sources of bias may be driving the results, the most serious of which is omitted variable bias induced by unobserved country-specific and time-invariant heterogeneity. To address these problems, we develop unique historical datasets, employ time-series centric techniques, and operationalize explicitly specified counterfactuals. We test to see if there is a long-run relationship between resource reliance and regime type within countries over time, both on a country-by-country basis and across several different panels. We find that increases in resource reliance are not associated with authoritarianism. In fact, in many specifications we generate results that suggest a resource blessing.

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  • Economic variables provide partial answers to why governance in some states and societies is more authoritarian than in others.

    “Economic variables—including the overall availability of economic resources and the manner in which those resources are distributed—provide partial answers to that question [3], [4], [5], [6].”

    From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [4]

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Authors
HABER, S., & MENALDO, V.
Affiliations
  • Hoover Institution (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
Corresponding author
  • HABER, STEPHEN
  • MENALDO, VICTOR
ORCID
MENALDO, VICTOR
Venue
American Political Science Review
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
2011-01-27
Volume
105
Issue
1
Pages
1-26
ISSN
  • 0003-0554 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5943
DOI
10.1017/s0003055410000584
OpenAlex
W2114260857
Cited by
1,128
References
105
Citations by year
2026: 40 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 69 · 2022: 89 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 134 · 2019: 81 · 2018: 99 · 2017: 79 · 2016: 70 · 2015: 76 · 2014: 60 · 2013: 64 · 2012: 66
FWCI
188.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified)
Locations
  • American Political Science Review (publishedVersion)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Natural Resources and Economic Development
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Corruption and Economic Development
Keywords
resource curse, natural resources, authoritarianism, democracy, resource dependence, political regimes, omitted variable bias, counterfactual analysis, resource blessing

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