Colonisation's long-lasting influence on economic growth

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), known for their natural resource riches, have often shown classical symptoms attributed to oil rentier states: heavily distorted economies, chronic political unrest and undemocratic governments. To explain the inverse relation of these countries' economic performance to their natural resource endowment, analysts have offered the Dutch disease hypothesis; this study, however, explores a historically oriented approach. The alternative thesis is that institutions in these countries were imprinted at their ‘rebirth’ or decolonisation by conditions with long-lasting influence on their economic performance. Using a cross-country growth model, the study offers statistical support indicating that contemporary economic growth variations have been impacted by MENA's ‘rebirth’ conditions through variations in government, investment, population growth and trade strategies. The evidence also depicts a weakening of the above relation over the more recent years, an outcome that may be attributed to economic reform initiatives that most MENA members have embarked on since the late 1980s

Development economics · Dutch disease · Economics · Economy · Endowment · Government (linguistics · Middle East · Natural resource · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Unrest · Natural Resources and Economic Development

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