Papers on natural resources
On natural resources and how, if they are not well managed, they may prove to be a mixed blessing.
Principal components of institutions, diversification, and growth (with Gylfi Zoega), in Handbook on Inequality and Natural Resources, edited by Graham Davis, Edward Elgar, 2026 (forthcoming).
Petrostates in decline (with Gylfi Zoega), May 2026.
Catch-up and the curse of oil (with Gylfi Zoega), CESifo Working Paper 12448, January 2026.
Natural resources and education, in Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, edited by Klaus F. Zimmermann, Springer Verlag, 2025.
Diversifying and Benchmarking Madagascar (with Jean-Pascal N. Nganou), in Proceedings of the Global Economic Diversification Conference 2024, edited by Keertana Subramani, Hamid Saeed, and Fadi Salem, Springer, 2025.
Diversification and Growth Revisited (with Gylfi Zoega), Development Finance Agenda, May-June 2025.
Balancing natural resources and human and social capital: Pathways to economic diversification in Mongolia (with Jean-Pascal N. Nganou), Comparative Economic Studies, December 2024.
Norway: it´s time for a more ethical exploitation of O&G resources (with Arne Jon Isachsen, also in Italian), RiEnergia, 3 May 2023.
Putting oil profits to global benefit (with Arne Jon Isachsen), Finance and Development, December 2022.
Dutch Disease, in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 3rd ed., 2018.
Political economy, Mr. Churchill, and natural resources, Mineral Economics, February 2018.
The Dutch Disease in Reverse: Iceland’s Natural Experiment (with Gylfi Zoega), in Getting Globalization Right: Sustainability and Inclusive Growth in the post Brexit Age, edited by Luigi Paganetto), Springer 2018.
From Natural Resources to Human Rights, in Emil Ems and Thorvaldur Gylfason (eds.), Prosperity through Trade and Structural Reform, Festschrift in honour of Per Magnus Wijkman, Dialogos, Stockholm, 2018.
From economic diversification to growth, in Rabah Arezki, Raouf Boucekkine, Jeffrey Frankel, Mohammed Laksaci, and Rick van der Ploeg (eds.), Rethinking the Macroeconomics of Resource-Rich Countries, CEPR/VOXEU, 24 April 2018.
From double diversification to efficiency and growth, Comparative Economic Studies, June 2017.
Double diversification with an application to Iceland (with Per Magnus Wijkman), in Economic Diversification Policies in Natural Resource Rich Economies (Ch. 11), 2017, edited by S. Mahroum and Y. Al-Saleh, Routledge.
Diversification, Dutch Disease, and Economic Growth: Options for Uganda (with Jean-Pascal N. Nganou), in Economic Diversification Policies in Natural Resource Rich Economies, 2017, edited by S. Mahroum and Y. Al-Saleh, Routledge.
Preface, Natural Resources and Economic Growth: Learning from History (eds. Marc Badia-Miró, Vicente Pinilla, and Henry Willebald), Routledge, 2015.
Resource rents, democracy and corruption: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa (with Rabah Arezki), Journal of African Economies, January 2013.
Resources and economic growth: Is Africa (Ghana) different?, in Policy Conference: Competitiveness & Diversification: Strategic Challenges in a Petroleum-Rich Economy, UNIDO, 2012.
Commodity price volatility, democracy and economic growth (with Rabah Arezki), in Frontiers of Economic Growth and Development, edited by Olivier de La Grandville, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2012.
Development and growth in mineral-rich countries: Why social policy matters, in Hujo, Katja (ed.), Mineral rents and the financing of social policy: Opportunities and challenges, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Beyond the curse: Policies to harness the power of natural resources (with Rabah Arezki and Amadou Sy), Africagrowth Agenda, October-December 2012.
Beyond the curse: Policies to harness the power of natural resources (with Rabah Arezki and Amadou Sy), VoxEU.org, 8 July 2012.
Natural resource endowment: A mixed blessing?, in Arezki, Rabah, Thorvaldur Gylfason and Amadou Sy (eds.), Beyond the Curse: Policies to Harness the Power of Natural Resources, foreword by Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund, 2011
Oil-spill economics: How Ghana can succeed, Africagrowth Agenda, April-June 2011.
Oil-spill economics: How Ghana can succeed, VoxEU.org, 27 March 2011.
Development and growth in mineral-rich countries, in Bleischwitz, Raimund, Paul J.J. Welfens, and ZhongXiang Zhang (eds.), Sustainable Growth and Resource Productivity: Economic and Global Policy Issues, Greenleaf-Publishing, London, 2009.
Oil management: Norway’s example, Africagrowth Agenda, 2008.
Norway’s Wealth: Not Just Oil, VoxEU.org, 6 June 2008.
Dwindling fish: What’s the catch?, VoxEU.org, 16 January 2008.
The international economics of natural resources and growth (in Russian), Ekonomicheskii zhurnal Vysshei shkoly ekonomiki (Economic Journal of the Higher School of Economics), September 2008.
The international economics of natural resources and growth, Minerals and Energy, June 2007.
Natural resources and economic growth: The role of investment (with Gylfi Zoega), The World Economy, August 2006.
Institutions, human capital, and diversification of rentier economies, in Dead Ends of Transition: Rentier Economies and Protectorates, eds. Michael Dauderstädt and Arne Schildberg, Campus, Frankfurt/Main 2006.
The road from agriculture (with Gylfi Zoega), in Institutions for Development and Growth, eds. Theo Eicher og Cecilia García-Peñalosa, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006.
The Dutch disease: Lessons from Norway, Contact, a quarterly magazine published by The Trinidad Tobago Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2006.
Natural resources and economic growth: From dependence to diversification, in Economic Liberalization and Integration Policy: Options for Eastern Europe and Russia, eds. Harry G. Broadman, Tiiu Paas, and Paul J. J. Welfens, Springer, Heidelberg and Berlin, 2005.
Inequality and economic growth: Do natural resources matter? (with Gylfi Zoega), in Inequality and Growth: Theory and Policy Implications, eds. Theo Eicher and Stephen Turnovsky, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003.
Mother Earth: Ally or Adversary?, World Economics, January-March 2002.
Lessons from the Dutch disease: Causes, treatment, and cures, in Paradox of Plenty: The Management of Oil Wealth, Report 12/02, ECON, Centre for Economic Analysis, Oslo, 2002.
Natural resources and economic growth: What is the connection?, in Fostering Sustainable Growth in Ukraine, eds. Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel and Iryna Akimova, Physica-Verlag (A Springer-Verlag Company), Heidelberg and New York, 2002.
Resources, agriculture, and economic growth in economies in transition (in Russian), Journal of the Institute for Privatization and Management, September 2002.
Mother Earth: Ally or adversary? (in Norwegian), in Hva gjør oljepengene med oss? (What Does Our Oil Wealth Do to Us?), ed. Arne Jon Isachsen, Oslo, 2002.
Natural resources and economic growth: What is the connection? (also in Ukrainian), in Fostering Sustainable Growth in Ukraine, eds. Stephan von Cramon-Traubadel and Iryna Akimova, Physica-Verlag (A Springer-Verlag Company), Heidelberg, Berlin, and New York, 2002.
Nature, power, and growth (in Russian), Ekonomicheskii zhurnal Vysshei shkoly ekonomiki (Economic Journal of the Higher School of Economics), Vol. 5, No. 4, 2001. (Lead article.)
Nature, power, and growth, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, November 2001.
Natural resources, education, and economic development, European Economic Review, May 2001.
A Nordic perspective on natural resource abundance, in Resource Abundance and Economic Development, ed. Richard M. Auty, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2001.
Resources, agriculture, and economic growth in economies in transition, Kyklos, 4, 2000.
Natural resources and economic growth: A Nordic perspective on the Dutch disease, in Macroeconomic Policy: Iceland in an Era of Global Integration, ed. Mar Gudmundsson, Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson, and Gylfi Zoega, Iceland University Press, Reykjavík, 2000.
A mixed blessing: Natural resources and economic growth (with Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson and Gylfi Zoega), Macroeconomic Dynamics, June 1999.
The pros and cons of fishing fees: The case of Iceland (in French, German, and Norwegian), EFTA Bulletin 3/4, 1992.
Iceland on the outskirts of Europe: The common property resource problem, EFTA Bulletin 2, European Free Trade Association, Geneva, 1991.