This thesis examines three plausible explanations for the natural resource curse phenomenon– the Dutch disease, institutional quality, and human capital. The phenomenon implies that countries rich in natural resources tend to have lower economic growth and development compared to countries that have fewer natural resources. The examination of this phenomenon has been organised into three empirical essays in the thesis. The first empirical essay applies the panel data fixed effect with Driscoll and Kraay’s standard errors and cross-sectional augmented distributed lag (CS-ARDL) approaches to examine the Dutch disease problem. Our results show strong evidence that the spending and the resource movement effects of the Dutch disease, particularly in oil-rich developing countries, negatively affect economic growth and development. The second empirical essay assesses the role of institutional quality in reducing the resource curse. Using the CS-ARDL approach and oil rents as a proxy for natural resources, the ...