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Whither the Resource Curse?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2013

Kevin M. Morrison
Kevin M. Morrison*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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What is it about oil? Whereas one might think that countries that produce the world's energy have it good, much scholarship has come to the conclusion that countries that produce oil have it bad: they are worse off economically and politically than they would otherwise be. This counter-intuitive idea has become so widespread that the “resource curse” is often discussed in popular outlets, from Thomas Friedman to Stephen Colbert. And yet scholarship is increasingly questioning whether this curse actually exists. After several decades of research on the topic, we still do not have a clear idea what it is about oil—if anything—that causes problems.

Type
Review Essay
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 1117 - 1125
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013 

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