Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Deepening or Dampening the Resource Curse? The effects of Chinese lending on the resource curse in African countries

Littorin Liljerehn, Timothy LU (2022) STVK02 20221
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Natural resource abundant countries, especially ones rich in oil, tend to suffer from political and economical problems as an effect of their resource wealth. This phenomenon has been observed and studied by many scholars and has been labelled the “Resource curse”. The occurrence of resource curses is mainly observed in countries that are not wealthy, aside from the wealth they have accumulated from their main natural resource meaning that they are largely dependent on exports of this abundant resource. There are many countries in Africa that fall into the category of suffering from a resource curse, as many states rich in oil can at the same time struggle to democratise, gain economic growth and build reliable and quality institutions.... (More)
Natural resource abundant countries, especially ones rich in oil, tend to suffer from political and economical problems as an effect of their resource wealth. This phenomenon has been observed and studied by many scholars and has been labelled the “Resource curse”. The occurrence of resource curses is mainly observed in countries that are not wealthy, aside from the wealth they have accumulated from their main natural resource meaning that they are largely dependent on exports of this abundant resource. There are many countries in Africa that fall into the category of suffering from a resource curse, as many states rich in oil can at the same time struggle to democratise, gain economic growth and build reliable and quality institutions. This study finds that countries rich in, and dependent on, oil have received significantly more lending from Chinese financiers to initiate different projects. The paper goes on to examine the case of Angola, finding that investments from Chinese banks have contributed greatly to the prosperity of the state-owned oil company Sonangol, which is known to be the most important rentier tool for the Angolan regime. Thereby the Chinese lending to Angola, at perhaps also other oil-dependent states in Africa, can be said to have contributed to the deepening of the resource curse. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Littorin Liljerehn, Timothy LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK02 20221
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Resource curse, Chinese lending, China, Africa, Natural resource dependency, Angola
language
English
id
9080064
date added to LUP
2022-07-03 08:22:44
date last changed
2022-07-03 08:22:44
@misc{9080064,
  abstract     = {{Natural resource abundant countries, especially ones rich in oil, tend to suffer from political and economical problems as an effect of their resource wealth. This phenomenon has been observed and studied by many scholars and has been labelled the “Resource curse”. The occurrence of resource curses is mainly observed in countries that are not wealthy, aside from the wealth they have accumulated from their main natural resource meaning that they are largely dependent on exports of this abundant resource. There are many countries in Africa that fall into the category of suffering from a resource curse, as many states rich in oil can at the same time struggle to democratise, gain economic growth and build reliable and quality institutions. This study finds that countries rich in, and dependent on, oil have received significantly more lending from Chinese financiers to initiate different projects. The paper goes on to examine the case of Angola, finding that investments from Chinese banks have contributed greatly to the prosperity of the state-owned oil company Sonangol, which is known to be the most important rentier tool for the Angolan regime. Thereby the Chinese lending to Angola, at perhaps also other oil-dependent states in Africa, can be said to have contributed to the deepening of the resource curse.}},
  author       = {{Littorin Liljerehn, Timothy}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Deepening or Dampening the Resource Curse? The effects of Chinese lending on the resource curse in African countries}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}