Resource Abundance and Life Expectancy

TL;DR

This study examines how major natural resource discoveries since 1960 have affected life expectancy in resource-poor nations, revealing positive impacts in some developing countries and negative effects in European nations.

Contribution

It fills a research gap by analyzing the causal impact of resource discoveries on life expectancy using modern empirical methods and longitudinal data.

Findings

Resource discoveries increased life expectancy in Ecuador, Yemen, Oman, and Equatorial Guinea.

Negative effects on life expectancy observed in some European countries.

Uses Difference-in-Differences, Event studies, and Synthetic Control methods.

Abstract

This paper investigates the impacts of major natural resource discoveries since 1960 on life expectancy in the nations that they were resource poor prior to the discoveries. Previous literature explains the relation between nations wealth and life expectancy, but it has been silent about the impacts of resource discoveries on life expectancy. We attempt to fill this gap in this study. An important advantage of this study is that as the previous researchers argued resource discovery could be an exogenous variable. We use longitudinal data from 1960 to 2014 and we apply three modern empirical methods including Difference-in-Differences, Event studies, and Synthetic Control approach, to investigate the main question of the research which is 'how resource discoveries affect life expectancy?'. The findings show that resource discoveries in Ecuador, Yemen, Oman, and Equatorial Guinea have positive and significant impacts on life expectancy, but the effects for the European countries are mostly negative.