Inom ulandsekonomi talas ibland om naturresursernas förbannelse: Fattiga länder med gott om naturresurser, tycks inte alls kunna dra nytta av dessa. Men vad det egentligen handlar om är såklart institutionernas betydelse - som sammanfattas i följande abstract:

Natural resource-abundant countries constitute both growth losers and growth winners, and the main difference between the success cases and the cases of failure lies in the quality of institutions. With grabber-friendly institutions more natural resources push aggregate income down, while with producer-friendly institutions more natural resources increase income. Such a theory finds strong support in data. A key question we also discuss is if resources in addition alter the quality of institutions. When that is the case, countries with bad institutions suffer a double resource curse - as the deterioration of institutions strengthens the negative effect of more natural resources. 

Källa: Mehlum, Halvor, Karl Moene, and Ragnar Torvik. 2006. "Cursed by Resources or Institutions?" World Economy 29:1117-1131.