Download or read book The Oil Curse written by Michael L. Ross and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-08 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explaining—and solving—the oil curse in the developing world Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. What explains this oil curse? And can it be fixed? In this groundbreaking analysis, Michael L. Ross looks at how developing nations are shaped by their mineral wealth—and how they can turn oil from a curse into a blessing. Ross traces the oil curse to the upheaval of the 1970s, when oil prices soared and governments across the developing world seized control of their countries' oil industries. Before nationalization, the oil-rich countries looked much like the rest of the world; today, they are 50 percent more likely to be ruled by autocrats—and twice as likely to descend into civil war—than countries without oil. The Oil Curse shows why oil wealth typically creates less economic growth than it should; why it produces jobs for men but not women; and why it creates more problems in poor states than in rich ones. It also warns that the global thirst for petroleum is causing companies to drill in increasingly poor nations, which could further spread the oil curse. This landmark book explains why good geology often leads to bad governance, and how this can be changed.
Download or read book Oil to Cash written by Todd Moss and published by CGD Books. This book was released on 2015-06-10 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oil to Cash explores one option to help countries with new oil revenue avoid the so-called resource curse: just give the money directly to citizens. A universal, transparent, and regular cash transfer would not only provide a concrete benefit to regular people, but would also create powerful incentives for citizens to hold their government accountable. Oil to Cash details how and where this idea could work and how policymakers can learn from the experiences with cash transfers in places like Mexico, Mongolia, and Alaska.
Download or read book Understanding and Avoiding the Oil Curse in Resource rich Arab written by Ibrahim Elbadawi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-14 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A variety of perspectives from leading economists provides fresh insight into how Arab countries may best exploit their oil revenues.
Download or read book Curse of the Black Gold written by Michael Watts and published by . This book was released on 2008-05-13 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nigeria is the sixth largest producer of oil in the world and one of the major suppliers of oil to the US. Set against a backdrop of what has been called the scramble for African oil, this text documents the consequences of a half-century of oil exploitation and production in one of the world's foremost centres of biodiversity.
Download or read book Oil Is Not a Curse written by Pauline Jones Luong and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-23 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book makes two central claims: first, that mineral-rich states are cursed not by their wealth but, rather, by the ownership structure they choose to manage their mineral wealth and second, that weak institutions are not inevitable in mineral-rich states. Each represents a significant departure from the conventional resource curse literature, which has treated ownership structure as a constant across time and space and has presumed that mineral-rich countries are incapable of either building or sustaining strong institutions - particularly fiscal regimes. The experience of the five petroleum-rich Soviet successor states (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) provides a clear challenge to both of these assumptions. Their respective developmental trajectories since independence demonstrate not only that ownership structure can vary even across countries that share the same institutional legacy but also that this variation helps to explain the divergence in their subsequent fiscal regimes.
Download or read book The Institutions Curse written by Victor Menaldo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debunks the view that natural resources lead to terrible outcomes by demonstrating that oil and minerals are actually a blessing.
Download or read book Rethinking the Resource Curse written by Benjamin Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Element documents the diversity and dissensus of scholarship on the political resource curse, diagnoses its sources, and directs scholarly attention towards what the authors believe will be more fruitful avenues of future research. In the scholarship to date, there is substantial regional heterogeneity and substantial evidence denying the existence of a political resource curse. This dissensus is located in theory, measure, and research design, especially regarding measurement error and endogenous selection. The work then turns to strategies for reconnecting research on resource politics to the broader literature on democratic development. Finally, the results of the authors' own research is presented, showing that a set of historically contingent events in the Middle East and North Africa are at the root of what has been mistaken for a global political resource curse.
Download or read book Resource Curse and Post Soviet Eurasia written by Vladimir Gel'man and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2010-08-06 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the end of the 2000s, the term 'resource curse' had become so widespread that it had turned into a kind of magic keyword, not only in the scholarly language of the social sciences, but also in the discourse of politicians, commentators and analysts all over the world-_like the term 'modernization' in the early 1960s or 'transition' in the early 1990s. In fact, the aggravation of many problems in the global economy and politics, against the background of the rally of oil prices in 2004D2008, became the environment for academic and public debates about the role of natural resources in general, and oil and gas in particular, in the development of various societies. The results of numerous studies do not give a clear answer to questions about the nature and mechanisms of the influence of the oil and gas abundance on the economic, political and social processes in various states and nations. However, the majority of scholars and observers agree that this influence in the most of countries is primarily negative. Resource Curse and Post-Soviet Eurasia: Oil, Gas, and Modernization is an in-depth analysis of the impact of oil and gas abundance on political, economic, and social developments of Russia and other post-Soviet states and nations (such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan). The chapters of the book systematically examine various effects of 'resource curse' in different arenas such as state building, regime changes, rule of law, property rights, policy-making, interest representation, and international relations in theoretical, historical, and comparative perspectives. The authors analyze the role of oil and gas dependency in the evolution and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, authoritarian drift of post-Soviet countries, building of predatory state and pendulum-like swings of Russia from 'state capture' of 1990s to 'business capture' of 2000s, uneasy relationships between the state and special interest groups, and numerous problems of 'geo-economics' of pipelines in post-Soviet Eurasia.
Download or read book Oil Dollars Debt and Crises written by Mahmoud A. El-Gamal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains the links between past and present oil crises, financial crises, and geopolitical conflicts.
Download or read book Covering Oil written by Svetlana Tsalik and published by Lifting the Resource Curse. This book was released on 2005 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Revenue Watch program and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue promote transparency and civic participation in natural resource policymaking. Journalists know how hard it is to report on government management of oil, gas, and other natural resource revenues. Governments and industry are seldom forthcoming. And reporters themselves usually lack the background in economics, engineering, geology, and corporate finance helpful to understanding the energy industry and the effects of resource wealth. This book attempts to redress the balance with practical information in easy to understand language. Chapters include Understanding the Resource Curse, A Primer on Oil, Oil Companies and the International Oil Market, the ABCs of Petroleum Contracts, and the Environmental, Social, and Human Rights Impacts of Oil Development. Tip sheets inform reporters about stories to pursue and questions to ask.
Download or read book Governance of the Petroleum Sector in an Emerging Developing Economy written by Professor Kwaku Appiah-Adu and published by Gower Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-09-28 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oil exploration in the developing world has been and continues to be a high profile and high risk activity attracting media coverage and stimulating much debate. In Governance of the Petroleum Sector in an Emerging Developing Economy, Professor Kwaku Appiah-Adu has assembled an edited volume that provides insight into critical aspects of this highly sensitive activity. Professor Appiah-Adu’s starting point is Ghana, where he has been closely involved in national policy-making. The book makes comparisons between that African country and others as diverse as Trinidad and Tobago, and Norway. The contributors, global experts in their respective fields, explore five critical themes and propose strategies for progress in each. You will find an in-depth analysis relating to: turning oil and gas wealth into sustainable and equitable development; entrenching transparency and stakeholder engagement; effective management of the oil and gas sector; and safeguarding security and the environment. Finally, country specific models and lessons, particularly for Ghana and other African oil producing nations, are offered. This book serves as reference for business practitioners, policy makers, scholars, students and anyone interested in gaining insight into the oil and gas sector, particularly as it pertains to Ghana and other African petroleum producing nations, with lessons drawn from the global arena and international best practice.
Download or read book Carbon Democracy written by Timothy Mitchell and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brilliant, revisionist argument that places oil companies at the heart of 20th-century history—and of the political and environmental crises we now face.” —Guardian “A sweeping overview of the relationship between fossil fuels and political institutions from the industrial revolution to the Arab Spring.” —Financial Times Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns the countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption and enormous inequality. Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes the body politic both in regions such as the Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in the places that have the greatest demand for energy. Timothy Mitchell begins with the history of coal power to tell a radical new story about the rise of democracy. Coal was a source of energy so open to disruption that oligarchies in the West became vulnerable for the first time to mass demands for democracy. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the development of cheap and abundant energy from oil, most notably from the Middle East, offered a means to reduce this vulnerability to democratic pressures. The abundance of oil made it possible for the first time in history to reorganize political life around the management of something now called “the economy” and the promise of its infinite growth. The politics of the West became dependent on an undemocratic Middle East. In the twenty-first century, the oil-based forms of modern democratic politics have become unsustainable. Foreign intervention and military rule are faltering in the Middle East, while governments everywhere appear incapable of addressing the crises that threaten to end the age of carbon democracy—the disappearance of cheap energy and the carbon-fuelled collapse of the ecological order. In making the production of energy the central force shaping the democratic age, Carbon Democracy rethinks the history of energy, the politics of nature, the theory of democracy, and the place of the Middle East in our common world.
Download or read book Pipe Dreams written by Erin Banco and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A fascinating and revealing dive into the murky world of oil contracts that shape power and politics in Iraq." -- Loveday Morris, The Washington Post Jerusalem bureau chief Iraq sits on top of more than 140 billion barrels of oil, making it the owner of the world's fifth largest reserves. When the United States invaded in 2003, the Bush Administration promised that oil revenue would be used to rebuild and democratize the country. But fifteen years later, those dreams have been shattered. The Iraqi economy has flatlined, millions of people are internally displaced, and international institutions have had to provide billions of dollars in assistance to the country every year. Where did all the oil revenue go? Reporter Erin Banco traveled to oil-rich Iraqi Kurdistan--an autonomous region that holds, according to the regional government, some 45 billion barrels of crude--to uncover how widespread corruption, tribal cronyism, kickbacks to political parties, and the war with ISIS have contributed to the plundering of Iraq's oil wealth. The region's economy and political stability have been on the brink of collapse, and local people are suffering. Based on court documents and on exclusive interviews with sources who have investigated energy companies and their dealings with government officials, Pipe Dreams is a cautionary tale that reveals how the dream of an oil-financed, American-style democracy in Iraqi Kurdistan now looks like a completely unrealistic fantasy.
Download or read book From Windfall to Curse written by Jonathan Di John and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-12-21 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the discovery of abundant oil resources in the 1920s, Venezuela has had an economically privileged position among the nations of Latin America, which has led to its being treated by economic and political analysts as an exceptional case. In her well-known study of Venezuela’s political economy, The Paradox of Plenty (1997), Stanford political scientist Terry Karl argued that this oil wealth induced extraordinary corruption, rent-seeking, and centralized intervention that resulted in restricting productivity and growth. What this and other studies of Venezuela’s economy fail to explain, however, is how such conditions have accompanied both growth and stagnation at different periods of Venezuela’s history and why countries experiencing similar levels of corruption and rent-seeking produce divergent developmental outcomes. By investigating the record of economic development in Venezuela from 1920 to the present, Jonathan Di John shows that the key to explaining why the economy performed much better between 1920 and 1980 than in the post-1980 period is to understand how political strategies interacted with economic strategies—specifically, how politics determined state capacity at any given time and how the stage of development and development strategies affected the nature of political conflicts. In emphasizing the importance of an approach that looks at the political economy, not just at the economy alone, Di John advances the field methodologically while he contributes to a long-needed history of Venezuela’s economic performance in the twentieth century.
Download or read book The Future of Petroleum in Lebanon written by Sami Atallah and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-19 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the future of the oil and gas sector in Lebanon? Following the recent discovery of these valuable resources in the southern Mediterranean, including in the Cypriot and Israeli offshore reserves, the possibility of Lebanon also becoming a petroleum-producing country has been raised. This collection of essays addresses the major challenges and opportunities that accompany the country's hope to join the petroleum club. Covering the key policy issues - from Lebanon's susceptibility to the oil curse, to the environmental risks of production - this book brings together expert analysis to offer answers at the institutional level. Of central importance, the contributors argue, is that for Lebanon to benefit from the discovery of petroleum, it must first reform its institutions with the full support of the voting public and civil society. Combining rigorous quantitative and qualitative research, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies has produced here an essential book that puts petroleum in Lebanon, and the important questions that come with it, within a global perspective.
Download or read book The Curse of Natural Resources written by Sevil Acar and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-02-20 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the paradox that resource-rich countries often struggle to manage their resources in a way that will help their economies thrive. It looks at how a country's political regime and quality of governance can determine the degree to which it benefits - or suffers - from having natural resources, shifting away from the traditional focus on economic growth data to study the complex implications of these resources for human well-being and sustainable development. To this end, Acar examines a panel of countries in terms of the effects of their natural resources on human development and genuine saving, which is a sustainability indicator that takes into account the welfare of future generations by incorporating the changes in different kinds of capital. Acar finds that the exportation of agricultural raw materials is associated with significant deterioration in human development, while extractive resource exports, such as energy and minerals, have negative implications for genuine savings. Next, the book compares the development path of Norway before and after discovering oil, contrasting it with Sweden's development. The two countries, which followed almost identical paths until the 1970s, diverged significantly in terms of per capita income after Norway found oil.
Download or read book Poisoned Wells written by Nicholas Shaxson and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each week the oil and gas fields of sub-Saharan Africa produce well over a billion dollars' worth of oil, an amount that far exceeds development aid to the entire African continent. Yet the rising tide of oil money is not promoting stability and development, but is instead causing violence, poverty, and stagnation. It is also generating vast corruption that reaches deep into American and European economies. In Poisoned Wells, Nicholas Shaxson exposes the root causes of this paradox of poverty from plenty, and explores the mechanisms by which oil causes grave instabilities and corruption around the globe. Shaxson is the only journalist who has had access to the key players in African oil, and is willing to make the connections between the problems of the developing world and the involvement of leading global corporations and governments.
