Amin, MohammadDjankov, Simeon2012-03-192012-03-192009-03-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/4077The authors use a sample of 133 countries to investigate the link between the abundance of natural resources and micro-economic reforms. Previous studies suggest that natural resource abundance gives rise to governments that are less accountable to the public and states that are oligarchic, and that it leads to the erosion of social capital. These factors are likely to hamper economic reforms. The authors test this hypothesis using data on micro-economic reforms from the World Bank's Doing Business database. The results provide a robust support for the "resource curse" view: a move from the 75th percentile to the 25th percentile on resource abundance equals 10.9 percentage points more reform. This is a large effect given that the mean probability of reform in the sample is 57.1 percent.CC BY 3.0 IGOABSOLUTE VALUEANNUAL GROWTHANNUAL GROWTH RATEAVERAGE ANNUALBANKRUPTCYBARRIERBUSINESS CLIMATEBUSINESS ENVIRONMENTBUSINESS REGULATIONSBUSINESSESCIVIL WARCIVIL WARSCONTRACT ENFORCEMENTCROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCESDEMOCRACIESDEMOCRACYDEPENDENT VARIABLEDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCEDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSDEVELOPMENT STRATEGIESDIFFERENCES IN INCOMEECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC LIBERALIZATIONECONOMIC LITERATUREECONOMIC PERFORMANCEECONOMIC POLICYECONOMIC REFORMSECONOMIC REVIEWEDUCATION LEVELEMPIRICAL RESULTSESPESTIMATED COEFFICIENTESTIMATED COEFFICIENTSESTIMATION METHODEXPLANATORY VARIABLEEXPLANATORY VARIABLESEXPORTSEXTERNAL SHOCKSFIXED EFFECTSFOREIGN AIDGDPGDP PER CAPITAGNPGOVERNANCE INDICATORSGOVERNMENT CONTRACTSGROWTH COLLAPSEGROWTH RATEGROWTH RATESINCOME LEVELSINDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTINSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTINTERNATIONAL TRADELABOR MARKETSLAGGED VALUESLEGAL SYSTEMLICENSELICENSESLINEAR REGRESSIONMEAN VALUEMINORITY SHAREHOLDERSNATURAL RESOURCENATURAL RESOURCE ABUNDANCENATURAL RESOURCESNEGATIVE CORRELATIONNEGATIVE EFFECTNEGATIVE LINKNEGATIVE RELATIONSHIPOPEN ECONOMYPER CAPITA GROWTHPER CAPITA GROWTH RATEPER CAPITA INCOMEPOLICY REFORMPOLICY REFORMSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLITICAL ECONOMYPOLITICAL INSTITUTIONSPOLITICAL SCIENCEPOLITICAL SYSTEMSPRIVATE INVESTMENTPRIVATE PROPERTYPRIVATE SECTORPRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENTPRODUCTIVITYPROPERTY RIGHTSREGRESSION RESULTSRENT SEEKINGRESOURCE ENDOWMENTSRESULTRESULTSRICH COUNTRIESSHAREHOLDERSHAREHOLDER RIGHTSSOCIAL CAPITALSOCIAL CONFLICTSTANDARD DEVIATIONTAXATIONTIME PERIODTRADE POLICYWAGESWEALTHWEBWORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4882