IMF Working Papers

The Impact of Natural Resource Discoveries in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Closer Look at the Case of Bolivia

By Frederik G Toscani

February 10, 2017

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Frederik G Toscani. The Impact of Natural Resource Discoveries in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Closer Look at the Case of Bolivia, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2017) accessed December 21, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

This paper studies the impact of natural resource extraction in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) from a number of angles. First, we exploit a novel dataset on the universe of giant oil and gas discoveries in the region to trace out the cyclical response of macroeconomic variables to discoveries over the short- and medium-run. Second, we use non-stationary panel data techniques to look at the long-run (trend) relationship between GDP per capita and the value of oil and gas production—our results imply that the recent fall in prices could depress GDP per capita by several percentage points. Last, we use Bolivia, which discovered huge gas reserves in the late 1990s, as a case study to apply the cross-country results and to study the impact of discoveries at the subnational level.

Subject: Commodities, Economic sectors, Employment, Environment, Labor, Mining sector, Natural resources, Oil, Oil production, Production

Keywords: Bolivia, Caribbean, Discoveries, Economic Growth, Employment, Gas production, Hydrocarbon production, Hydrocarbon revenue, Labor intensity, Mining sector, Natural resource, Natural resource wealth, Natural Resources, Oil, Oil production, Poverty, Production start, Resource discovery, Value, Value of oil, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    35

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2017/027

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2017027

  • ISBN:

    9781475577570

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941