Book: Natural Resources and Economic Growth Learning from History

A new edited book appears to give a nice overview of some historical episodes of various countries and there dealings with natural resources:

Natural Resources and Economic Growth. Learning from History

edited by Marc Badia-Miró, Vicente Pinilla, Henry Willebald

Published by Routlegde, further info here [routledge.com] and a preview at Google Books [google.co.uk]

New research: The local economic impacts of resource abundance : what have we learned?

In the line with the reviews by Gamu, Le Billon and Spiegel, and Cust and Poelhekke [both oxcarre.blogspot.com],

Fernando M. Aragona, Punam Chuhan-Pole and Bryan Christopher Land of the World Bank present a new overview:

The local economic impacts of resource abundance : what have we learned?

Abstract:

What are the socioeconomic impacts of resource abundance? Are these effects different at the national and local levels? How could resource booms benefit (or harm) local communities? This paper reviews a vast literature examining these questions, with an emphasis on empirical works. First, the evidence and theoretical arguments behind the so-called resource curse, and other impacts at the country level, are reviewed. This cross-country literature highlights the importance of institutions. Then, a simple analytical framework is developed to understand how resource booms could impact local communities, and the available empirical evidence is examined. This emerging literature exploits within-country variation and is opening new ways to think about the relation between natural resources and economic development. The main message is that others factors, such as market mechanisms and local spillovers, are also relevant for understanding the impact of resource abundance. Finally, the paper discusses issues related to fiscal decentralization and provides ideas for future research.

available here [worldbank.org]

Arezki and Blanchard: Seven Questions About The Recent Oil Price Slump

Rabah Arezki, who recently visited us, writes on IMFDirect together with IMF's chief economist Olivier Blanchard on the implications of declining oil price on the world economy.

Oil prices have plunged recently, affecting everyone: producers, exporters, governments, and consumers. Overall, we see this as a shot in the arm for the global economy. Bearing in mind that our simulations do not represent a forecast of the state of the global economy, we find a gain for world GDP between 0.3 and 0.7 percent in 2015, compared to a scenario without the drop in oil prices. There is however much more to this complex and evolving story. In this blog we examine the mechanics of the oil market now and in the future, the implications for various groups of countries as well as for financial stability, and how policymakers should address the impact on their economies.

Read on here [imf.org]