IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i6p1958-d151849.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Historical and Empirical Basis for Communal Title in Minerals at the National Level: Does Ownership Matter for Human Development?

Author

Listed:
  • Gary Flomenhoft

    (Center for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia)

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of mineral ownership on the resource curse as measured by the Human Development Index. We start from the basic assumption that the Earth and its minerals are common pool resources, and the sharing of benefits would improve development outcomes. Communal title to minerals exists at the international level for the deep seabed, outer space objects, and, potentially Antarctica, and at the sub-national level through communal title to land, such as traditional landowners and aboriginal tribes. A comprehensive summary of national mining title laws for 199 countries was completed in order to determine if communal ownership is recognized at the national level. The finding is that this type of ownership is non-existent at the national level. The methods include historiography, extensive compilation of national constitutions and mining laws, and linear regression analysis. Ownership titles were combined into centralized and decentralized categories, and simple regression conducted to determine correlation with the human development index (HDI) for 199 countries. Initial findings are that decentralized mineral ownership titles are statistically correlated with higher HDI outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary Flomenhoft, 2018. "Historical and Empirical Basis for Communal Title in Minerals at the National Level: Does Ownership Matter for Human Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-27, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1958-:d:151849
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1958/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1958/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Otto, James M., 1998. "Global changes in mining laws, agreements and tax systems," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 79-86, June.
    2. Eric Roark, 2012. "Applying Locke's Proviso to Unappropriated Natural Resources," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 60(3), pages 687-702, October.
    3. Ross Levine, 2005. "Law, Endowments and Property Rights," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 61-88, Summer.
    4. Sachs, J-D & Warner, A-M, 1995. "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth," Papers 517a, Harvard - Institute for International Development.
    5. James Otto & Craig Andrews & Fred Cawood & Michael Doggett & Pietro Guj & Frank Stermole & John Stermole & John Tilton, 2006. "Mining Royalties : A Global Study of Their Impact on Investors, Government, and Civil Society," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7105.
    6. Otto, James M., 1997. "A national mineral policy as a regulatory tool," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1-2), pages 1-7, June.
    7. Dauvin, Magali & Guerreiro, David, 2017. "The Paradox of Plenty: A Meta-Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 212-231.
    8. Hurst, Michael, 1997. "The determinants of earnings differentials for indigenous Americans: Human capital, location, or discrimination?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 787-807.
    9. Farley, Joshua & Costanza, Robert & Flomenhoft, Gary & Kirk, Daniel, 2015. "The Vermont Common Assets Trust: An institution for sustainable, just and efficient resource allocation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 71-79.
    10. James Otto & Craig Andrews & Fred Cawood & Michael Doggett & Pietro Guj & Frank Stermole & John Stermole & John Tilton, 2006. "Mining Royalties : A Global Study of Their Impact on Investors, Government, and Civil Society, Appendixes," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7136.
    11. Segal, Paul, 2011. "Resource Rents, Redistribution, and Halving Global Poverty: The Resource Dividend," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 475-489, April.
    12. Dauvin, Magali & Guerreiro, David, 2017. "The Paradox of Plenty: A Meta-Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 212-231.
    13. Mahdavi, Paasha, 2014. "Why do leaders nationalize the oil industry? The politics of resource expropriation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 228-243.
    14. Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza & Lessmann, Christian & Markwardt, Gunther, 2018. "Natural resource rents and internal conflicts: Can decentralization lift the curse?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 186-205.
    15. Feder, Gershon & Feeny, David, 1991. "Land Tenure and Property Rights: Theory and Implications for Development Policy," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 5(1), pages 135-153, January.
    16. Sandbu, Martin E., 2006. "Natural wealth accounts: A proposal for alleviating the natural resource curse," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1153-1170, July.
    17. Christian Dippel, 2014. "Forced Coexistence and Economic Development: Evidence From Native American Reservations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2131-2165, November.
    18. Karl Widerquist & Michael W. Howard (ed.), 2012. "Exporting the Alaska Model," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-03165-5.
    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. Yuanyuan Zhu & Xiaoqi Zhou & Yilin Gan & Jing Chen & Ruilin Yu, 2021. "Spatio-Temporal Differentiation and Driving Mechanism of the “Resource Curse” of the Cultivated Land in Main Agricultural Production Regions: A Case Study of Jianghan Plain, Central China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Basu, Rahul, 2020. "Intergenerational Equity, the Public Trust Doctrine, Norway and North Sea Oil," MPRA Paper 102856, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Tadadjeu, Sosson & Njangang, Henri & Asongu, Simplice A. & Kamguia, Brice, 2023. "Natural resources, child mortality and governance quality in African countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Bertrand Laporte & Céline de Quatrebarbes & Yannick Bouterige, 2019. "Rent sharing and progressivity of tax regimes in the mining sector: An analysis of 21 African gold-producing countries [Partage de la rente et progressivité des régimes fiscaux dans le secteur mini," CERDI Working papers halshs-02103047, HAL.
    3. 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).
    4. Vining, Aidan R. & Moore, Mark A., 2017. "Potash ownership and extraction: Between a rock and a hard place in Saskatchewan," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 71-80.
    5. Celine de Quatrebarbes & Bertrand Laporte, 2015. "What do we know about the mineral resource rent sharing in Africa?," CERDI Working papers halshs-01146279, HAL.
    6. Awoa, Paul Awoa & Efogo, Françoise Okah & Ondoa, Henri Atangana, 2023. "Oil dependence and entrepreneurship: Non-linear evidence," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).
    7. Zhang, Qian & Brouwer, Roy, 2020. "Is China Affected by the Resource Curse? A Critical Review of the Chinese Literature," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 133-152.
    8. Tadadjeu, Sosson & Njangang, Henri & Ningaye, Paul & Nourou, Mohammadou, 2020. "Linking natural resource dependence and access to water and sanitation in African countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    9. Troug, Haytem, 2020. "The heterogeneity among commodity-rich economies: Beyond the prices of commodities," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    10. Slesman, Ly, 2022. "The elusive curse of natural resources on happiness," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Laporte, Bertrand & de Quatrebarbes, Céline, 2015. "What do we know about the sharing of mineral resource rent in Africa?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(P2), pages 239-249.
    12. Avom, Désiré & Keneck-Massil, Joseph & Njangang, Henri & Nvuh-Njoya, Youssouf, 2022. "Why are some resource-rich countries more sophisticated than others? The role of the regime type and political ideology," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    13. Kamguia, Brice & Keneck-Massil, Joseph & Nvuh-Njoya, Youssouf & Tadadjeu, Sosson, 2022. "Natural resources and innovation: Is the R&D sector cursed too?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Awoa Awoa, Paul & Atangana Ondoa, Henri & Ngoa Tabi, Henri, 2022. "Women's political empowerment and natural resource curse in developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    15. Awoa Awoa, Paul & Ngouma Yana, Alexandre Ghislain & Okah Efogo, Françoise & Atangana Ondoa, Henri, 2024. "Africa's resource curse: The key role of property rights," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Choumert Nkolo, J., 2018. "Developing a socially inclusive and sustainable natural gas sector in Tanzania," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 356-371.
    17. Chandan Sharma & Debdatta Pal, 2021. "Revisiting resource curse puzzle: new evidence from heterogeneous panel analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(8), pages 897-912, February.
    18. Tadadjeu, Sosson & Njangang, Henri & Woldemichael, Andinet, 2023. "Are resource-rich countries less responsive to global warming? Oil wealth and climate change policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    19. Shantayanan Devarajan, Hélène Ehrhart, Tuan Minh Le, Gaël Raballan, 2011. "Direct Redistribution, Taxation, and Accountability in Oil-Rich Economies- A Proposal- Working Paper 281," Working Papers 281, Center for Global Development.
    20. Belaid, Fateh & Dagher, Leila & Filis, George, 2021. "Revisiting the resource curse in the MENA region," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(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:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1958-:d:151849. 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.