Economic Freedom and the Resource Curse

This paper explores the question of whether mineral resource wealth is an economic blessing or curse, particularly for developing nations where growth and reduction of poverty are vital. It does this by examining the relationship between natural resources and economic growth and the interaction between institutions and natural resources. We consider four categories of natural resources: [1] agricultural raw materials, [2] fuel, [3] food, and [4] ores and metals. Resource wealth was significant in our testing on economic growth but only the last category turned out to be significant on its own as the effect upon economic growth of agricultural raw materials, fuel, and food, when tested independently, did not reach a level of statistical significance.