Non-resource revenues and the resource curse in different institutional structures: The DIGNAR-MTFF model

Abstract

Numerous studies have examined the resource curse using different perspectives. This study investigates how the resource curse occurs in three countries with different institutional structures using a new model. The DIGNAR-MTFF model introduced and presented in this article is a combination of the DIGNAR model and the FMM-MTFF model. This model includes a consistent framework for industrial production, the inflow of intermediate goods, public investment inefficiencies, learning-by-doing externalities in foreign and intermediate goods sectors, and absorptive capacity constraints. In this research, the Input-Output Table data for Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Norway in 2015 have been used. A simplified three-sector version of the Input-Output table compares the model's output for countries. The model is used under a specific scenario with different oil revenue cycles. The results for Saudi Arabia, a country with a specific institutional structure characterized by high dependence on oil revenues, show that the effects of abundant resources on non-resource incomes are severely negative indicating that Saudi Arabia experienced the Dutch disease with more intensity. The Dutch disease was less severe in Norway and Mexico, which have broader tax systems based on different institutional structures. The model's results show the role of an efficient tax system in overcoming natural resources' revenue cycles and the independence of the economies from these revenue cycles thus avoiding the resource curse.