Resource Depletion, Dependence and Development: Can Theory Help?

Programme Paper
Paul Stevens and John V Mitchell, July 2008

The paper focuses on the connections between:

depletion policy including the willingness of some key petroleum-exporting countries to expand production in the medium to long term;
development policies linked to depletion, especially the difficulties of diversifying sources of income to replace revenue from petroleum as production ceases to grow, or declines, as a result of natural resource depletion or lack of markets;
the creation, use and management of sovereign 'heritage' or 'stabilization' funds by many petroleum-exporting countries which are earning more petroleum revenue than they consider it prudent or possible to spend or invest in development of the non-petroleum sectors of their economies.