The natural resource curse and economic transition

► The paper examines the relationship between “point-source” natural resource abundance and economic growth, quality of institutions, investment in human and physical capital, and social welfare (life expectancy and infant mortality) for all countries and for the economies in transition. ► For all countries, only the “voice and accountability” measure of institutional quality is negatively and significantly affected by natural resource wealth. ► In the economies in transition, natural resource wealth is associated with lower primary school enrollment and life expectancy and higher infant mortality compared to other resource-rich economies. ► Compared to other economies in transition, natural resource abundant transitional economies are not significantly worse off with respect to our indicators. Using cross-country regressions, we examine the relationship between “point-source” resource abundance and economic growth, quality of institutions, investment in human and physical capital, and social welfare (life expectancy and infant mortality) for all countries and for the economies in transition. Contrary to most literature, we find little evidence of a natural resource curse for all countries. Only the “voice and accountability” measure of institutional quality is negatively and significantly affected by oil wealth. In the economies in transition, there is some evidence that natural resource wealth is associated with lower primary school enrollment and life expectancy and higher infant mortality compared to other resource rich countries. Compared to other economies in transition, however, natural resource abundant transitional economies are not significantly worse off with respect to our indicators.