The political economy of natural resources in Latin America: Resource rents and Politics (Part II)

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

More than 30 national governments share a significant amount of mineral and hydrocarbons rents to subnational governments. In Latin America, subnational governments from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru have access to substantial resource revenues. These governments received a fiscal windfall generated by the last commodity boom (circa 2003-2014) that financed an increase of public expenditure. However, empirical studies suggest that the impact of such investments was not commensurate to the billions spent by Latin American local governments. Nevertheless, the research on the existence of a subnational resource curse has produced mixed results and is less conclusive than the national resource curse literature. The objective of the proposed panel is to review and discuss empirical research (quantitative and qualitative) on the subnational resource curse with an emphasis on the political economy of oil, gas and mineral revenues at the subnational level. Hence, the panel explores the effect of the abundance of resource revenue over political institutions and how politics, in this context, drives the use of extractive rents subnational by governments.

Sub Track

• Economics and Development

Session Organizer

• Juan David D Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Oxford University

Chair

• Stefan Peters, Kassel University; CALAS

Individual Presentations

• Oil Rents and Patronage: The Fiscal Effects of Oil Booms - Lucas I Gonzalez, CONICET/Universidad Católica Argentina-Universidad Nacional de San Martin

• In Arauca, everyone eats the same cake: oil - Juan David D Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Oxford University

• Varieties of Nontax Income and the Reproduction of Subnational Regimes: Are Resource Rents and Intergovernmental Transfers The Same? - Diego Díaz Rioseco, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Agustina Giraudy, American University

Discussant

• Jose Carlos Orihuela Paredes, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú