The resource hope

Project Syndicate: When a country quadruples its tax revenues in a single year, it is time to take notice. That is the scale of the revenue increase that Ghana achieved from 2010 to 2011, owing to receipts from its extractive industries.

Ghana is not alone. Resource-rich developing countries’ rising tax revenues reflect not only higher commodity prices, but also international rules that have improved financial transparency in the oil, gas, and mining industries, reducing opportunities for tax evasion significantly. Such rules also featured high on the agenda of the recent G-8 Summit in Northern Ireland. It is important to appreciate these efforts – and to demand more...