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SelectedWorks

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

2012

Natural resource rents

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Demographic Transition In Resource Rich Countries: A Bonus Or A Curse?, Kjetil Bjorvatn, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan Sep 2012

Demographic Transition In Resource Rich Countries: A Bonus Or A Curse?, Kjetil Bjorvatn, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

While East Asia benefited significantly from its demographic transition in the 1970s and 1980s, the youth wave that we currently observe in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has not had a similar impact on economic development. The present study argues that resource wealth is an important reason for understanding why. We develop a simple model highlighting how the income effect of increased labor supply may depend on resource rents, and provide empirical evidence that support the theoretical predictions. Using panel data covering the period from 1970–2006 for more than 120 countries, we find a negative interaction effect between …


Natural Resources And Internal Conflicts - How Decentralization Lifts The Curse, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, Gunther Markwardt, Christian Lessmann Jan 2012

Natural Resources And Internal Conflicts - How Decentralization Lifts The Curse, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, Gunther Markwardt, Christian Lessmann

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

We study how the natural resource endowments affect risk of internal conflicts and how this effect depends on decentralization levels in a political system. Resource rents, especially lootable resources such as oil, finance conflicts, creating strong separatist movements. Our main hypothesis is that increasing the levels of political decentralization can limit the destructive effect of the natural resource rents on internal conflicts. We use cross-country and panel data covering the period from 1984–2004 from more than 80 countries to test this hypothesis. Our estimates confirm that the relationship between the natural resource rents and risk of internal conflict is dependent …