The Resource Curse Hypothesis Revisited: Evidence from a Panel VAR

The objective of this paper is to revisit the resource curse hypothesis both within and between countries of different democratic footprint, based on a dynamic model that properly accounts for endogeneity issues. To achieve that, we apply a panel Vector Auto-Regressive (PVAR) approach along with panel impulse response functions to data on oil abundance variables, economic growth and several political institutional variables in 76 countries classified by different income groupings, level of development and oil importing or exporting status, over the period 1980-2012. Our results suggest that controlling for the quality of political institutions is important in rendering the resource course hypothesis significant. Doing so, the resource curse hypothesis is documented mainly for developing economies, net oil-exporters and medium-high income countries. Specifically, when economies from the aforementioned groups are characterised by weak quality of political institutions, then oil abundance is not growth-enhancing.