Examining the Natural Resource Curse. Why Do States Fail?

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International relations, grade: 1,3, Free University of Berlin (Otto Suhr Institut), language: English, abstract: The phenomenon of a "natural resource curse" has been observed in various settings and is a widely accepted theory. However, a research gap exits when it comes to the effect of natural resources on state failure. Qualitative literature suggests natural resources could have a negative effect on the stability of a state, however, a quantitative data analysis has yet to confirm this expectation.

This study therefore examines the relationship between oil and mineral wealth and the fragility of a state and investigates the research question "why do some states fail, while others do not?". After running a binomial logistic regression, the results suggest that oil wealth significantly fosters state fragility, while the effect of mineral wealth, although being generally as anticipated, is too small to be significant. The results can be regarded as a partial confirmation of the resource curse theory, although the lack of significance of the variable 'mineral wealth' spurs further research.