The conventional explanation for strikes is that they are caused by an asymmetry of information about the profitability of the firm — union members are uninformed whereas management are informed. Instead, this paper builds a model of strikes where a perception of unfairness provides an...

In this paper we examine the claim that natural resources invite civil conflict, and challenge the main stylized facts in this literature. We find that the conventional measure of resource dependence is endogenous with respect to conflict, and that instrumenting for dependence implies that it is...

We critically evaluate the empirical basis for the so-called resource curse and find that, despite the topic's popularity in economics and political science research, this apparent paradox may be a red herring. The most commonly used measure of "resource abundance" can be more usefully...

Summary Since Sachs and Warner's [Sachs, J. D., & Warner, A. M. (1995a). Natural resource abundance and economic growth. NBER working paper, no. 5398] contribution, there has been a lively debate on the so-called natural resource curse. This paper re-examines the effects of natural resource...