Does the case of the Chilean nitrate boom support activist or deterministic interpretations of the ‘resource curse’?

Nicholas Harris

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: Literature attesting to the existence of a resource ‘curse’ implied that economic prospects for resource abundant nations were poor and out of their hands. Not only had resource abundance created difficult-tomanage structural conditions, but it had also corrupted institutions and, in turn, condemned nations to further negative management of resources in the future. A critical branch of literature rose in opposition, suggesting that the outcomes of resource abundant nations had not been predetermined by their resources, but had been contingent on active institutional management. Correct management could not only have mitigated the immediate structural and institutional impacts of the socalled ‘curse,’ but it could also have prevented the degradation of these virtuous institutional behaviours themselves. This comment will add to the debate by demonstrating which theory applies better to the case of Chile during its nitrate era: which stated ‘curse’ effects struck Chile, and how culpable was institutional management in this process? I find that whilst there are definite ‘curse’ symptoms, institutional management played a larger role than ‘determinists’ would predict, supporting the ‘activist’ strand of argument. This is not to downplay, however, the pressures that resource abundance exerted, even in countries that had a claim to institutional exceptionality.

JEL-codes: N56 O13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2024-11-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126154/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:wpaper:126154

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History LSE, Dept. of Economic History Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager on behalf of EH Dept. ().