Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3.
In these studies Sachs and colleagues refer to their measure of 'resource dependence, primary products
exports as a percentage of GDP', as a measure of a country's 'resource abundance'. Strictly speaking, such
a variable cannot be a true indicator of 'resource abundance' per se , as it is not a measure of the total
resource endowment or stocks of a country. In fact, there is an ongoing debate in the 'resource curse' liter-
ature over what indicator should be used as a measure of 'resource abundance', with most authors agreeing
that some measure of total resource stock availability, such as total land area per capita, cropland per capita
and mineral resources per capita, would be the preferred indicators (Auty, 2001; Stijns, 2006). Ding and
Field (2005)
fi
nd that resource dependence may have a negative e
ff
ect on growth but abundant natural
resource endowments may not.
4.
Wunder (2003) also notes that, because these economic activities in the non-oil trade sector are also mainly
responsible for much of the forest conversion occurring in oil-producing tropical countries, one unintended
but potential side e
ff
ect of the 'Dutch disease' impact of an oil boom is a decline in tropical deforestation.
5.
Drawing from the political science literature, Ross (1999, p. 308) categorizes 'political explanations for the
resource curse' in terms of cognitive, societal and statist theories: 'Cognitive, societal, and statist approaches
to the resource curse each take resource windfalls (rents) as their independent variable and economic stag-
nation as their dependent variable. Cognitive theories suggest that windfalls produce myopic disorders
among policymakers; societal theories argue that windfalls empower social groups that favor growth-imped-
ing
scal or trade policies; and statist approaches suggest that windfalls can weaken state institutions that
are necessary to foster long-term economic development.'
fi
6.
However, Gylfason (2001, p. 566 n. 12) suggests that Indonesia should be considered at best only a quali
ed
success, given the widespread corruption in the country and because Indonesia has recovered much less well
from the 1997-98 Asian crisis compared to Malaysia and Thailand.
fi
7.
In fact, with over 50% of its population in fragile areas and with a rural poverty incidence of 19.2%, Yemen
shows distinct signs of a rural poverty-resource degradation linkage. Indonesia is also not far o
from sat-
isfying the '20-20 rule', given that the country has over 20% of its population on fragile land and 15.7% of
its rural population in absolute poverty.
ff
References
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