Korean Energy Economic Review ISSN:1599-7057(Print) 에너지경제연구

The purpose of this article is to identify a possible causal channel through which resource abundance might affect economic growth. By using a different proxy for natural resource abundance, we find that, although the level of corruption increases in resource abundance in most countries, its deleterious effect is mediated, or even reversed, when the quality ofthe rule of law is sufficiently high. Our result, therefore, explains that, with successful legal reforms reducing corruption, resource-rich countries may promote economic growth, countering the conventional resource curse hypothesis that an abundance of natural resources unconditionally slows economic growth.