Being rich in energy resources – a blessing or a curse

Samuel Schubert

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: “Being rich in energy resources – a blessing or a curse” finds that an energy resource curse plagues many EU supplier states. This in turn directly affects Europe’s energy supply security and threatens to engulf Europe in unwanted hostilities at home and abroad. The study addresses seven issues including the evidence suggesting that a curse exists among Europe’s external energy suppliers, active programs to limit that risk, the significance of economic diversification, the applicability of dividend programs, the link between corruption and security of energy supplies, additional possible actions of the Union, and further threats posed by resource cursed countries. It establishes a definitive links between corruption and supply security, poor transparency, and inequality, and proves that a low level of economic diversification is a reliable indicator for the existence of the curse. It also finds that there are examples of excellence in recovering from and even converting the curse to a blessing. In looking at the policy instruments available to the Union, the study determines that the Union does have the technical expertise and financial means to restructure political and economic systems and strengthen public administrations and institutions and found that Europe’s successful implementation of similar past programs could be taken, at least in part, as models for future efforts. Finally, the study recommends the controversial approach of conditionality in the use of aid and finds that the Union should legislate standards for the reporting and auditing of energy exports and imports at home and abroad.

Keywords: Resource Curse; Oil Curse; Energy Security; Energy Policy; EU; European Union; Foreign Policy; Development Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 C19 E31 E6 F0 F14 F35 F41 F43 F50 F51 F52 F53 F59 H10 H2 H56 L13 L3 L71 L78 N50 N54 N55 O1 O2 O57 Q32 Q33 Q34 Q38 Q4 Y1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-01-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in EP Policy Department Studies 386.614(2007): pp. 1-60

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10108/1/MPRA_paper_10108.pdf original 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:pra:mprapa:10108

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().