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Resource Management and Transition in Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and Mongolia

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  • Richard Pomfret

    (Peterson Institute for International Economics)

Abstract

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the resource-rich transition economies of Mongolia and the southern republics of the former Soviet Union. For Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the ability to earn revenue from cotton exports allowed them to avoid reform. Oil in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan was associated with large-scale corruption, but with soaring revenues in the 2000s their institutions evolved and to some extent improved. Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia illustrate the challenges facing small economies with large potential mineral resources, with the former suffering from competition for rents among the elite and the latter from lost opportunities. Overall the countries illustrate that a resource curse is not inevitable among transition economies, but a series of hurdles need to be surmounted to benefit from resource abundance. Neither the similar initial institutions nor those created in the 1990s are immutable.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Pomfret, 2011. "Resource Management and Transition in Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and Mongolia," Working Paper Series WP11-8, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp11-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Richard Pomfret, 2018. "Exploiting a natural resource in a poor country: The good, the bad and the ugly sides of the Kyrgyz Republic’s gold mine," Working Papers 372, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).
    2. Jeffrey D. Wilson, 2015. "Multilateral Organisations and the Limits to International Energy Cooperation," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 85-106, February.
    3. Hofman, Irna & Visser, Oane, 2021. "Towards a geography of window dressing and benign neglect: The state, donors and elites in Tajikistan’s trajectories of post-Soviet agrarian change," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Yuldashev, Farhod & Sahin, Bahadir, 2016. "The political economy of mineral resource use: The case of Kyrgyzstan," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 266-272.
    5. Kjetil Bjorvatn & Tina Søreide, 2014. "Corruption and competition for resources," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(6), pages 997-1011, December.
    6. Horváth, Roman & Zeynalov, Ayaz, 2016. "Natural resources, manufacturing and institutions in post-Soviet countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 141-148.
    7. Feng, Chen-Yu & Yang, Xiaodong & Afshan, Sahar & Irfan, Muhamamd, 2023. "Can renewable energy technology innovation promote mineral resources’ green utilization efficiency? Novel insights from regional development inequality," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Zhandos Ybrayev, 2022. "Balance-of-payments-constrained growth model: an application to the Kazakhstan’s economy," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(4), pages 745-767, December.
    9. Sarvar Gurbanov & Jeffrey B. Nugent & Jeyhun Mikayilov, 2017. "Management of Oil Revenues: Has That of Azerbaijan Been Prudent?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-20, June.
    10. Spoor Max, 2018. "25 Years of Rural Development in post-Soviet Central Asia: Sustaining Inequalities," Eastern European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 24(1), pages 63-79, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Oil; Gas; Minerals; Central Asia; Resource Curse;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q32 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development
    • P35 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Public Finance
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

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