Junior Workshop 2:
Resource Curse and Governance
Faisal Ahmed
This workshop is designed for students wishing to conduct original research on the resource curse (i.e., government revenue originating from non-tax sources, such as oil, minerals, foreign aid, etc.) and its consequences for the quality and form of governance, primarily in developing countries. Readings will focus on published research on this topic, including theory building and techniques for finding data and evaluating the processes and impacts of non-tax income on governance. This workshop is motivated by the development experience in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
A wide range of questions can be pursued in this workshop. These may include: the political conditions under which natural resources constitute a “curse” or “blessing”; whether non-tax income explain differences in political institutions (e.g., democracy versus autocracy) and their development across countries and regions (e.g., the Middle East); the effects of the resource curse on governance (e.g., corruption, political stability, democratization); ways to design and implement policies to “better” manage the political consequences of non-tax income.