IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v6y2017i1p21-d90981.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Democratic Institutions, Natural Resource Governance, and Ghana’s Oil Wealth

Author

Listed:
  • Felix Kumah-Abiwu

    (Department of Pan-African Studies, Kent State University, P. O. Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242, USA)

Abstract

The literature on natural resources is endowed with works on countries that have experienced slow economic performance despite their abundant natural resources (resource curse), with the exception of Norway and other few countries. Strong institutions and good governance practices have been underscored as some of the explanatory factors to the high performance of the outlier countries. Ghana’s oil discovery in the era of its advancing democratic practices has led some to argue that the country might escape the resource curse phenomenon. While recognizing the importance of this argument, this article, however, argues that Ghana’s likelihood of escaping the resource curse could be problematic due to its exclusive emphasis on democratic governance without greater focus on oil sector governance. Drawing on the theory of agenda setting and the existing literature, the article makes the case for agenda shift in the debate on Ghana’s oil wealth and development. It stresses the need for a dualistic governance (the democratic and the oil sector) approach in the broader discourse on how Ghana can escape the resource curse.

Suggested Citation

  • Felix Kumah-Abiwu, 2017. "Democratic Institutions, Natural Resource Governance, and Ghana’s Oil Wealth," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:6:y:2017:i:1:p:21-:d:90981
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/1/21/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/6/1/21/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew M. Warner, 1995. "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 5398, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Halvor Mehlum & Karl Moene & Ragnar Torvik, 2006. "Cursed by Resources or Institutions?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 1117-1131, August.
    3. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2011. "Natural Resources: Curse or Blessing?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 366-420, June.
    4. Michael K. McLendon, 2003. "Setting the Governmental Agenda for State Decentralization of Higher Education," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(5), pages 479-515, September.
    5. Holden, Steinar, 2013. "Avoiding the resource curse the case Norway," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 870-876.
    6. Ayelazuno, Jasper, 2014. "Oil wealth and the well-being of the subaltern classes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A critical analysis of the resource curse in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 66-73.
    7. Mr. Atsushi Iimi, 2006. "Did Botswana Escape from the Resource Curse?," IMF Working Papers 2006/138, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Thurber, Mark C. & Hults, David R. & Heller, Patrick R.P., 2011. "Exporting the "Norwegian Model": The effect of administrative design on oil sector performance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5366-5378, September.
    9. Sachs, Jeffrey D. & Warner, Andrew M., 2001. "The curse of natural resources," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 827-838, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olatunji Abdul Shobande & Joseph Onuche Enemona, 2021. "A Multivariate VAR Model for Evaluating Sustainable Finance and Natural Resource Curse in West Africa: Evidence from Nigeria and Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chi-Swian Wong, 2021. "Science Mapping: A Scientometric Review on Resource Curses, Dutch Diseases, and Conflict Resources during 1993–2020," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-48, July.
    2. Muhamad, Goran M. & Heshmati, Almas & Khayyat, Nabaz T., 2021. "How to reduce the degree of dependency on natural resources?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Ben-Salha, Ousama & Dachraoui, Hajer & Sebri, Maamar, 2021. "Natural resource rents and economic growth in the top resource-abundant countries: A PMG estimation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    4. Tcheta-Bampa, Tcheta-Bampa & Kodila-Tedika, Oasis, 2018. "Dynamisation de la malédiction des ressources naturelles en Afrique sur les performances économiques : institution et guerre froide [Curse of Natural Resources and Economic Performance in Africa: I," MPRA Paper 86510, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Omar H. M. N. Bashar & Omar K. M. R. Bashar, 2020. "Resource abundance, financial crisis and economic growth: did resource‐rich countries fare better during the global financial crisis?," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(2), pages 376-395, April.
    6. Konte, Maty & Vincent, Rose Camille, 2021. "Mining and quality of public services: The role of local governance and decentralization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    7. Akram, Vaseem & Ali, Jabir, 2022. "Do countries converge in natural resources rents? Evidence from club convergence analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    8. Yilanci, Veli & Aslan, Murat & Ozgur, Onder, 2021. "Disaggregated analysis of the curse of natural resources in most natural resource-abundant countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Taner Turan & Halit Yanıkkaya, 2020. "Natural resource rents and capital accumulation nexus: do resource rents raise public human and physical capital expenditures?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 22(3), pages 449-466, July.
    10. Cai, Chunlin & Li, Ning, 2023. "The threshold effect of export sophistication on natural resources-trade diversification nexus," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    11. Waqar Wadho & Sadia Hussain, 2023. "Ethnic diversity, concentration of political power and the curse of natural resources," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 113-137, April.
    12. Wei, Hua & Rizvi, Syed Kumail Abbas & Ahmad, Ferhana & Zhang, Yuchen, 2020. "Resource cursed or resource blessed? The role of investment and energy prices in G7 countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    13. Destek, Mehmet Akif & Adedoyin, Festus & Bekun, Festus Victor & Aydin, Sercan, 2023. "Converting a resource curse into a resource blessing: The function of institutional quality with different dimensions," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. Addison,Tony & Boly,Amadou & Mveyange,Anthony Francis, 2016. "Mining and economic development : did China's WTO accession affect African local economic development ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7906, The World Bank.
    15. Abdulahi, Mohamued Elyas & Shu, Yang & Khan, Muhammad Asif, 2019. "Resource rents, economic growth, and the role of institutional quality: A panel threshold analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 293-303.
    16. Boire, Sidiki & Nell, Kevin S., 2021. "The enclave hypothesis and Dutch disease effect: A critical appraisal of Mali's gold mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    17. Nhabinde, Simeão & Heshmati, Almas, 2020. "The Extractive Industry’s impact on Economic Growth in SADC Countries," GLO Discussion Paper Series 656, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    18. Andrés O. Dávila & Manuel Fernández & Hernando Zuleta, 2021. "The Natural Resource Boom and The Uneven Fall of The Labor Share," Documentos CEDE 19427, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    19. Hussain, Muzzammil & Ye, ZhiWei & Usman, Muhammad & Mir, Ghulam Mustafa & Usman, Ahmad & Abbas Rizvi, Syed Kumail, 2020. "Re-investigation of the resource curse hypothesis: The role of political institutions and energy prices in BRIC countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Jiang, Chun & Zhang, Yadi & Kamran, Hafiz Waqas & Afshan, Sahar, 2021. "Understanding the dynamics of the resource curse and financial development in China? A novel evidence based on QARDL model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:6:y:2017:i:1:p:21-:d:90981. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.