IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jknowl/v15y2024i1d10.1007_s13132-023-01227-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Importance of Economic Complexity in the Resource-Growth Discourse: Empirical Evidence from Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Ekundayo Peter Mesagan

    (Pan-Atlantic University
    University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH))

  • Xuan Vinh Vo

    (University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH))

Abstract

This is a panel analysis for 28 African countries that focusses on investigating the mediating effect of economic complexity via resource-growth model in Africa between 1995 and 2019. We utilise the pool mean group (PMG) framework to analyse the panel series. Empirical result reveals that natural resources positively but insignificantly impact short- and long-run growth. For economic complexity, it exerts a significantly negative effect on growth in the short term but has a long-term favourable effect that is significant on growth. More so, the conditional impact of economic complexity and resource rent on economic growth is positive in both short- and long-run but only significant in the long run. Lastly, the study employs the economic complexity index plus to confirm the robustness of the empirical results. We therefore conclude that economic complexity is an important channel for promoting long-term resource blessing in Africa. The study then makes policies to improve the resource-growth link via the economic complexity channel.

Suggested Citation

  • Ekundayo Peter Mesagan & Xuan Vinh Vo, 2024. "The Importance of Economic Complexity in the Resource-Growth Discourse: Empirical Evidence from Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 2772-2793, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s13132-023-01227-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s13132-023-01227-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-023-01227-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13132-023-01227-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Eregha, Perekunah B. & Mesagan, Ekundayo P., 2020. "Oil resources, deficit financing and per capita GDP growth in selected oil-rich African nations: A dynamic heterogeneous panel approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Thorvaldur Gylfason & Gylfi Zoega, 2006. "Natural Resources and Economic Growth: The Role of Investment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 1091-1115, August.
    4. Mesagan, Ekundayo & Unah, Aboje & Idowu, Olamide & Alamu, Abidemi, 2019. "Oil Resource Abundance in Nigeria and Iran: Contrapuntal Effect on Social and Economic Welfare," BizEcons Quarterly, Strides Educational Foundation, vol. 4, pages 3-22.
    5. Nguyen Phuc Canh & Su Dinh Thanh, 2022. "The Dynamics of Export Diversification, Economic Complexity and Economic Growth Cycles: Global Evidence," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 57(3), pages 234-260, August.
    6. Paulo Gala & Igor Rocha & Guilherme Magacho, 2018. "The structuralist revenge: economic complexity as an important dimension to evaluate growth and development," Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Center of Political Economy, vol. 38(2), pages 219-236.
    7. Boschini, Anne & Pettersson, Jan & Roine, Jesper, 2013. "The Resource Curse and its Potential Reversal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 19-41.
    8. Badeeb, Ramez Abubakr & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Clark, Jeremy, 2017. "The evolution of the natural resource curse thesis: A critical literature survey," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 123-134.
    9. Gerelmaa, Lkhagva & Kotani, Koji, 2016. "Further investigation of natural resources and economic growth: Do natural resources depress economic growth?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 312-321.
    10. Ekundayo P. Mesagan & Titilope C. Adewuyi & Olugbenga Olaoye, 2022. "Corporate Finance, Industrial Performance and Environment in Africa: Lessons for Policy," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 22/026, African Governance and Development Institute..
    11. Chudik, Alexander & Pesaran, M. Hashem, 2015. "Common correlated effects estimation of heterogeneous dynamic panel data models with weakly exogenous regressors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 188(2), pages 393-420.
    12. Boniface Ngah Epo & Dief Reagen Nochi Faha, 2020. "Natural Resources, Institutional Quality, and Economic Growth: an African Tale," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(1), pages 99-128, January.
    13. Tiago de. V. Cavalcanti & Kamiar Mohaddes & Mehdi Raissi, 2011. "Does oil abundance harm growth?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(12), pages 1181-1184.
    14. Kevin K. Tsui, 2011. "More Oil, Less Democracy: Evidence from Worldwide Crude Oil Discoveries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(551), pages 89-115, March.
    15. Shujin Zhu & Renyu Li, 2017. "Economic complexity, human capital and economic growth: empirical research based on cross-country panel data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(38), pages 3815-3828, August.
    16. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1986. "Adaptive Behavior and Economic Theory," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 401-426, October.
    17. Peter Ekundayo Mesagan & Akanni Ismaila Yusuf & Azubuike Isaac Ogbuji, 2019. "Natural resource endowment and output growth: How crucial is deficit financing in managing resource-rich African economies?," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 21(2), pages 353-369, December.
    18. Thorvaldur Gylfason, 2006. "Natural Resources and Economic Growth: From Dependence to Diversification," Springer Books, in: Harry G. Broadman & Tiiu Paas & Paul J.J. Welfens (ed.), Economic Liberalization and Integration Policy, pages 201-231, Springer.
    19. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    20. Tiba, Sofien, 2019. "Modeling the nexus between resources abundance and economic growth: An overview from the PSTR model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    21. Eregha, P.B. & Mesagan, Ekundayo Peter, 2016. "Oil resource abundance, institutions and growth: Evidence from oil producing African countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 603-619.
    22. Ahmed, Khalid & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2016. "Dynamics between economic growth, labor, capital and natural resource abundance in Iran: An application of the combined cointegration approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 213-221.
    23. Yasmeen, Humaira & Tan, Qingmei & Zameer, Hashim & Vo, Xuan Vinh & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2021. "Discovering the relationship between natural resources, energy consumption, gross capital formation with economic growth: Can lower financial openness change the curse into blessing," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    24. Juan Carlos Chávez & Marco T. Mosqueda & Manuel Gómez-Zaldívar, 2017. "Economic Complexity and Regional Growth Performance: Evidence from the Mexican Economy," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 47(2), pages 201-219, Summer.
    25. Tabash, Mosab I. & Mesagan, Ekundayo Peter & Farooq, Umar, 2022. "Dynamic linkage between natural resources, economic complexity, and economic growth: Empirical evidence from Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    26. Papyrakis, Elissaios & Gerlagh, Reyer, 2007. "Resource abundance and economic growth in the United States," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1011-1039, May.
    27. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    28. Pérez, Claudia & Claveria, Oscar, 2020. "Natural resources and human development: Evidence from mineral-dependent African countries using exploratory graphical analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Mesagan, Ekundayo Peter & Charles, Ayobola Olufolake & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2023. "The relevance of resource wealth in output growth and industrial development in Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Tabash, Mosab I. & Mesagan, Ekundayo Peter & Farooq, Umar, 2022. "Dynamic linkage between natural resources, economic complexity, and economic growth: Empirical evidence from Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Mesagan, Ekundayo Peter & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2023. "Does natural resource rent and consumption interplay worsen Africa's pollution? Heterogeneous panel approach with cross-sectional dependence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Ozcan, Burcu & Temiz, Mehmet & Gültekin Tarla, Esma, 2023. "The resource curse phenomenon in the case of precious metals: A panel evidence from top 19 exporting countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Eregha, Perekunah B. & Mesagan, Ekundayo P., 2020. "Oil resources, deficit financing and per capita GDP growth in selected oil-rich African nations: A dynamic heterogeneous panel approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Ekundayo Peter Mesagan & Xuan Vinh Vo & Precious Muhammed Emmanuel, 2023. "The technological role in the growth-enhancing financial development: evidence from African nations," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 657-680, February.
    7. Badeeb, Ramez Abubakr & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Clark, Jeremy, 2017. "The evolution of the natural resource curse thesis: A critical literature survey," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 123-134.
    8. 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).
    9. Muhammad Atif Khan & Muhammad Asif Khan & Kishwar Ali & József Popp & Judit Oláh, 2020. "Natural Resource Rent and Finance: The Moderation Role of Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-23, May.
    10. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Destek, Mehmet Akif & Okumus, Ilyas & Sinha, Avik, 2019. "An empirical note on comparison between resource abundance and resource dependence in resource abundant countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 47-55.
    11. Eslamloueyan, Karim & Jafari, Mahbubeh, 2021. "Do high human capital and strong institutions make oil-rich developing countries immune to the oil curse?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    12. Baz, Khan & Xu, Deyi & Cheng, Jinhua & Zhu, Yongguang & Huaping, Sun & Ali, Hashmat & Abbas, Khizar & Ali, Imad, 2022. "Effect of mineral resource complexity and fossil fuel consumption on economic growth: A new study based on the product complexity index from emerging Asian economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    13. Belaid, Fateh & Dagher, Leila & Filis, George, 2021. "Revisiting the resource curse in the MENA region," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    14. Zeeshan Arshad & Margarita Robaina & Anabela Botelho, 2020. "Renewable and Non-renewable Energy, Economic Growth and Natural Resources Impact on Environmental Quality: Empirical Evidence from South and Southeast Asian Countries with CS-ARDL Modeling," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(5), pages 368-383.
    15. Bakhsh, Satar & Zhang, Wei, 2023. "How does natural resource price volatility affect economic performance? A threshold effect of economic policy uncertainty," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Khan, Muhammad Atif & Gu, Lulu & Khan, Muhammad Asif & Oláh, Judit, 2020. "Natural resources and financial development: The role of institutional quality," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    17. Pérez, Claudia & Claveria, Oscar, 2020. "Natural resources and human development: Evidence from mineral-dependent African countries using exploratory graphical analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    18. 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).
    19. Asiamah, Oliver & Agyei, Samuel Kwaku & Ahmed, Bossman & Agyei, Ellen Animah, 2022. "Natural resource dependence and the Dutch disease: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Chen, Ming & Chen, Junying, 2023. "Natural resources extraction in emerging economies: Does it promote sustainable development or crowd-out real sector?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(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:spr:jknowl:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s13132-023-01227-7. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.