The Natural Resource Curse: An Analysis of the Dutch Case based on Sectoral Economies of Scale

This paper analyzes the curse of natural resources from a new approach, taking as reference object the economy of the Netherlands. It is shown how the deindustrialization process of an economy suffers as a result of the natural resource sector development, and how it may cause lower growth rates when the industrial sector has certain features. As a starting point, we proceed with an estimation of production functions for different sectors of the economy in order to quantify the economies of scale in each of them. Subsequently, by means of a constrained optimization model, a boom in the natural... Mehr ...