Corruption, Development and the Curse of Natural Resources

摘要

There are many cases in history where natural resources have played annimportant role in economic development. Among other reasons, Britainnand France gained economic prosperity more than a century ago bynexploiting their colonies’ natural resources. During the 1800s, land wasnimportant and land abundant countries such as Canada, the US and Aus-ntralia had some of the highest real wages. Britain, Germany and the USnrelied heavily on coal and iron ore deposits during their industrializationn~Sachs and Warner, 1995!, and some developed countries, such as Can-nada and Norway, continue to rely on natural resources as economic driv-ners. However, history also tells us that natural resource abundance is notnrequired for prosperity. Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Koreanand Taiwan have all achieved high per capita incomes despite a relativenscarcity of natural resources. Nor does natural resource abundance guar-nantee economic prosperity. South Africa and Venezuela possess abun-ndant natural resources but neither enjoys a high standard of living, beingnplagued by corruption, civil unrest and income inequality.