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1 – 10 of over 6000Patricia O'Donnell and Christophe Rivet
Natural resource extraction is perceived as a destructive aspect of human culture. This characterization is widespread, despite the activity having shaped relationships between…
Abstract
Purpose
Natural resource extraction is perceived as a destructive aspect of human culture. This characterization is widespread, despite the activity having shaped relationships between communities and their environment to create entire sets of cultural values and expressions through settlement patterns, traditional skills and practices, innovation and technology, intangible cultural expressions, local economies and more. The cultural dimensions of natural resource extraction landscapes were discussed at the ICOMOS ADCOM Annual Symposium in La Plata, Argentina, in December 2018. The workshop included experts in cultural landscapes, sustainability, industrial archaeology and industrial heritage. This paper reports on these issues and deliberations focusing on World Heritage cultural landscapes of extraction.
Design/methodology/approach
The report considers a broad survey of the World Heritage List and sites on national Tentative Lists to identify those related to natural extraction sites and distinguishing between categories of relict vs. living, and between the types of natural resources being extracted.
Findings
The conclusion is that the World Heritage Committee has yet to address the living value of natural resource extraction. Furthermore, the workshop attendants concluded that there is a pressing need to do so in light of the type, nature and sustainability of these sites. As the source of materials for many outstanding sites on the World Heritage List and the decreasing availability of some resources, the question requires consideration to ensure the sustainable use and livelihood of communities.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations are set by the general terms of the survey and the limited engagement of knowledgeable individuals.
Practical implications
The practical implications are related to guidance to review and analyse potential living cultural landscapes related to natural resource extraction.
Originality/value
There is no general discussion on this topic yet amongst professionals. The initiative of the workshop identified that gap and its related necessity to provide guidance.
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Paul Adjei Kwakwa, Hamdiyah Alhassan and George Adu
Even though many studies have attempted to understand the drivers of carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption to help tackle environmental issues, not much has been done to…
Abstract
Purpose
Even though many studies have attempted to understand the drivers of carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption to help tackle environmental issues, not much has been done to estimate the effect of natural resources extraction on these two variables. This paper aims to analyze the long-run and short-run carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption effect of natural resources extraction in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical foundation for this study is the Stochastic Impacts Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model. Secondary Data sourced from World Development Indicators (2018) for the period of 1971-2013 were used. Estimation was done by using the autoregressive distributed lag.
Findings
It was found among other things that urbanization, and extraction of natural resources contribute to Ghana’s carbon dioxide emission, while official development assistance helps in reducing carbon dioxide emission in the long run. Again, while income and extraction of natural resources increase energy consumption, urbanization and official development assistance reduce environmental degradation in the long run. Regarding the short run, income and urbanization both increase energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission; trade openness and official development assistance decrease both carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption.
Research limitations/implications
The implications from the results include the need to strictly enforce laws regulating extractive activities in the country to ensure a safe environment; and also to raise tariff and non-tariff barriers on products that do not promote a friendly environment and vice versa.
Originality/value
The effect of natural resources extraction on carbon emission and energy consumption is examined.
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Hamdiyah Alhassan and Paul Adjei Kwakwa
The rise in public debt and the increased extraction of natural resources in Ghana at a time that environmental degradation is escalating, especially with carbon dioxide emission…
Abstract
Purpose
The rise in public debt and the increased extraction of natural resources in Ghana at a time that environmental degradation is escalating, especially with carbon dioxide emission, is worrying. This seems to cast doubt on the country's ability to meet the goals of the Paris agreement for climate change and ensuring sustainable development. Consequently, in this study, the effect of natural resources extraction and government debt on carbon dioxide emission is investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis was adopted for this study. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square Model was used for assessing the data. An annual data from 1971 to 2018 was used for the analysis.
Findings
The long-run results based on the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square analysis reveal that natural resources extraction increases carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, the joint effect of post-oil production in commercial quantities and natural resources rent increases carbon dioxide emission. Further, the findings document that the initial stage of government debt improves environmental quality up to a point, beyond which an increase in debt hurts the environment. On the environmental degrading effect of economic growth, the findings validate the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. It is also observed that urbanization degrades environmental quality.
Practical implications
The study offers appropriate recommendations policymakers need to embrace towards the attainment of lower carbon emissions from the loans and natural resources rent to achieve environmental sustainability.
Originality/value
The effect of debt on carbon dioxide emission is assessed for the Ghanaian economy. It also contributes to studies on the natural resources-carbon emission nexus.
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Mark Fafard and Rob Haley
The Peruvian Canon system was designed to collect a percentage of taxed profits from the country's natural resource industries and redistribute these funds into communities that…
Abstract
Purpose
The Peruvian Canon system was designed to collect a percentage of taxed profits from the country's natural resource industries and redistribute these funds into communities that are important to the natural resource extraction process. However, these communities often lack significant basic resources, such as adequate public health facilities and basic medical supplies. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This analysis focusses on the political and economic factors within Peru's Canon distribution system and proposes public policy strategies that could more effectively ensure natural resource profits reach extraction zone communities.
Findings
Policymakers should consider the implementation of policies that require a transparent Canon collection and distribution system. Policies should be developed that mandate an adequate percentage of Canon funds for investment in Peru's public health system.
Research limitations/implications
A significant portion of the available literature on local conditions within natural resource extraction communities and systematic empirical data available are lacking.
Originality/value
This analysis can lead to the development and implementation of public policy that more effectively targets improvements throughout Peru's natural resource communities.
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This paper aims to examine the effects of extractive activities on the well-being of local communities and assesses stakeholder expectations of resource benefits and the corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effects of extractive activities on the well-being of local communities and assesses stakeholder expectations of resource benefits and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of oil companies in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a qualitative approach based on an exploratory research design to investigate the opinions and experiences of stakeholders in the growing oil and gas industry in Ghana.
Findings
The empirical findings demonstrate that entry negotiated agreements and local content requirements in the offshore oil industry have minimal benefits because of the lack of linkages with the economies of local communities. Additionally, the nature of CSR practices within the extractive industry is directly traceable to the resource governance arrangements and plural logics in Ghana’s institutional context.
Research limitations/implications
This study only provides insights into natural resource governance and CSR issues in offshore oil and gas projects. Thus, the findings are not generalisable to the entire industry, including onshore drilling, which have other sustainability issues.
Practical implications
This research highlights the gap in natural resource management in Ghana and the effects of community expectations on CSR practices in the oil and gas industry. Therefore, this study posits the significance for including compliance requirements for improving the well-being of host communities in entry negotiated agreements and local contents.
Originality/value
By highlighting the nuanced issues in natural resource management within the oil and gas industry in Ghana, this paper makes significant contributions to the CSR and sustainability literature.
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The “resource curse phenomenon” has received a lot of attention from researchers; however, there has not been any sound explanation to back this phenomenon since the main reason…
Abstract
Purpose
The “resource curse phenomenon” has received a lot of attention from researchers; however, there has not been any sound explanation to back this phenomenon since the main reason why natural resource should restrain economic growth instead of boosting economic growth remains unanswered. This paper contributes to literature on “resource curse hypothesis” by examining the role of government effectiveness in influencing the impact of gas resource rent on economic growth.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted the Cobb-Douglass production and incorporated gas resource rent, institutional quality (government effectiveness), inflation and exchange rate as additional variables that influences total output (gross domestic product). The author estimated the empirical form of the Cobb-Douglass production using autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) and Toda and Yamamoto (1995) as the main estimation strategies while other time series approaches were used as a robustness check.
Findings
The estimates from the ARDL short-run and the long-run dynamics suggest that the direct impact of gas resource rent on economic growth was positive but not statistically significant. At the same time, the interacting of gas resource rent and government effectiveness showed a positive and statistically significant effect of nearly 0.4123 and 0.8724 on economic growth in the long run and short run, respectively. The results from the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) also indicated that economic growth has a strong influence on gas resource rent while government effectiveness drives economic growth and not vice versa.
Research limitations/implications
The findings from this study imply that government effectiveness plays a crucial role in averting the “resource curse phenomenon”. Hence, improving government effectiveness and efficiency through minimizing corruption among state institutions would be imperative in curbing the “resource curse phenomenon” in developing countries.
Originality/value
The influential role of government effectiveness on the relationship between gas resource rent on economic growth is examined.
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Tania El Kallab and Cristina Terra
This paper explores the role of colonial heritage on long-term economic development from a resource-curse perspective. The authors investigate the impact of colonial exports on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the role of colonial heritage on long-term economic development from a resource-curse perspective. The authors investigate the impact of colonial exports on long-term economic development through two channels: (1) a direct impact of the economic dependency on natural resources and (2) an indirect impact via its effect on colonial institutions, which persisted over time and influenced current economic development.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this issue, the authors use an original data set on French bilateral trade from 1880 to 1912. The authors use partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in the empirical analysis, so that the authors are able to construct latent variables (LVs) for variables that are not directly observable, such as the quality of institutions.
Findings
The authors find that exports of primary goods to France had a negative impact on colonial institutions and that for French colonies, this impact was driven by minerals exports. Despite its impact on colonial institutions, exports of French colonies had no significant indirect impact on their current institutions. The authors find no significant direct impact of colonial trade on current development for French colonies. Finally, colonial exports of manufactured products had no significant impact on colonial institutions among French colonies and a positive impact among non-French ones.
Research limitations/implications
Research implications regarding the findings of this paper are, namely, that the relative poor performance within French colonies today cannot be attributed to the extraction of raw materials a century ago. However, human capital and institutional development, instead of exports, are more relatively important for long-term growth. Some limitations in trying to determine the simultaneous relationship among colonial trade, institutions and economic performance are the relation between colonial trade and the extent of extraction from the colonizer, which is hard to quantify, as well as its precise mechanism.
Practical implications
Since the initial institutions set in those former colonies presented a strong persistence in the long run, their governments should focus now on building sound and inclusive political and economic institutions, as well as on investing in human capital in order to foster long-term growth. Once a comprehensive set of institutional and human resources are put in place, the quality and quantity of exports might create a positive spillover on the short-run growth.
Social implications
One social implication that can be retrieved from this study is the ever-lasting effect of both human capital investment and introduction of inclusive political and economic institutions on the long-run impact of growth.
Originality/value
The paper uses an original primary data set from archival sources to explore the role of colonial heritage on long-term economic development from a resource-curse perspective. It applies a relatively new model partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) that allows the construction of LVs for variables that are not directly observable, as well as channeling the impact on growth through both direct and indirect channels. Finally, it allows for the simultaneous multigroup analysis across different colonial groups.
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Opoku Adabor, Emmanuel Buabeng and Juliet Fosua Dunyo
While the relationship between natural resource rent and economic growth is well documented in the literature, not much robust analysis has been done to estimate the causative…
Abstract
Purpose
While the relationship between natural resource rent and economic growth is well documented in the literature, not much robust analysis has been done to estimate the causative relationship between oil resource rent and economic growth in Ghana. This might be due to the fact that commercial production of crude oil started not long ago in Ghana. This paper aims to examine the causal relationship between oil resource rent and economic growth for the period of 2011 to 2020 in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
The study incorporates economic growth as a function of oil resource rent, non-oil revenue, foreign direct investment, capital and interest rate in a Cobb–Douglass production function/model. The study used four different estimation strategies including the autoregressive distributed lags model, Toda–Yamamoto test approach, nonlinear autoregressive distributed lags model and nonlinear Granger causality.
Findings
The main finding revealed that 1% increase in oil resource rent generates 0.84% increase in economic growth of Ghana in the long run. Contrary, the authors find an insignificant positive effect of oil resource rent on economic growth of Ghana in the short run for the period under study. The result from the Toda–Yamamoto test approach also showed a unidirectional causality running from oil resource rent to economic growth of Ghana, providing evidence in support of the resource blessing hypothesis in Ghana. The results are robust to two different alternative estimation strategies.
Originality/value
The causal relationship between crude oil resource rent and economic growth is examined.
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Regulating common‐pool resources is welfare enhancing for society but not necessarily for all users who may therefore oppose regulations. The purpose of this paper is to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
Regulating common‐pool resources is welfare enhancing for society but not necessarily for all users who may therefore oppose regulations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the short‐term impact of common‐pool resource regulations on welfare distribution.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors model a game of common‐pool resource extraction among heterogeneous users.
Findings
It was found that market‐based regulations such as fees and subsidies or tradable quotas achieve a higher reduction of extraction from free‐access than individual quotas with the same proportion of better‐off users. Also, they make more users better‐off for the same resource preservation.
Originality/value
The quota regulation has attractive fairness properties: it reduces inequality while still rewarding the more efficient users.
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Ronald U. Mendoza, Harold J. MacArthur and Anne Beline Ong Lopez
– This paper aims to provide an updated review of policy literature and evidence on the development implications of extractive industries.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an updated review of policy literature and evidence on the development implications of extractive industries.
Design/methodology/approach
It synthesizes the main lessons drawn from an extensive review of policy and academic literature on this topic. It outlines the risks attached to the natural resource curse as well as the associated solutions, as demonstrated by empirical evidence and policy experience.
Findings
Based on the authors’ review of case studies and multi-country empirical analyses, there is a mixed picture on the link between extractive industries and inclusive growth. The authors find that, on the one hand, significant risks are commonly associated with the natural resource curse faced by countries that wish to tap this wealth for development. On the other hand, the mixed results also suggest that the many challenges related to expanding extractive industries are not necessarily unavoidable.
Practical implications
For policymakers, the main message is that some countries that have taken important steps to improve the governance of their wealth as well as channel these toward productive investments – notably human capital – appear to have transformed the natural resource curse into a boon for development.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper is that it provides the most comprehensive review to date on this body of the policy and academic literature. It will serve as a guide for policymakers, civil society and other stakeholders working on issues linked to extractive industries.
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