Property Rights, Oil and Income Levels: Over a Century of Evidence

Brunnschweiler, Christa N. and Valente, Simone (2013): Property Rights, Oil and Income Levels: Over a Century of Evidence.

Abstract

We investigate the effects of different regimes of control rights over oil exploitation on aggregate domestic income. We construct a new panel dataset on petroleum ownership structures for up to 68 countries between 1867-2008, distinguishing among regimes of Domestic Control, Foreign Control, and international Partnerships. Results show that Partnerships tend to generate higher domestic income than Foreign and Domestic Control. This result is robust to controlling for political regimes (i.e. democracy, anocracy, autocracy), time effects, and other factors. Existing theories of incomplete contracts capture several aspects, but not the general mechanism underlying the relationships between aggregate domestic income and control regimes in primary sectors

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Property rights, Control rights, National Income, Panel data, Petroleum
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D2 - Production and Organizations > D23 - Organizational Behavior ; Transaction Costs ; Property Rights; F - International Economics > F2 - International Factor Movements and International Business > F20 - General; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O13 - Agriculture ; Natural Resources ; Energy ; Environment ; Other Primary Products

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