An extensive literature establishes the resource curse, the paradoxical tendency of societies with more natural resources to have worse economic outcomes. Our formal model extends the resource curse literature in several ways. First, there may exist a general tendency for resources to crowd out private production while still increasing consumption and welfare. We establish this relation without assuming increasing returns to scale in the productive private sector, as is common in the literature. We also propose a novel resource curse to leisure time. Just as resources ‘should’ increase income – their failure to do so establishing the traditional curse – they should also allow more leisure. Recent cross-country data suggest the opposite is true. We offer initial steps toward explaining the discrepancy: resources can turn from blessing to curse on both leisure and income under flawed institutions, particularly when policymakers favor employment over leisure. Direct (re)distribution of resource wealth rather than expanded government employment presents a policy solution.

中文翻译：

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对闲暇的诅咒？资源租金和劳动力供应


大量文献确立了资源诅咒，即拥有更多自然资源的社会会产生更糟糕的经济结果的矛盾趋势。我们的正式模型以多种方式扩展了资源诅咒文献。首先，可能存在一种普遍的趋势，即资源排挤私人生产，同时仍然增加消费和福利。我们建立了这种关系，而没有像文献中常见的那样假设生产性私营部门的规模回报增加。我们还提出了一种新颖的闲暇资源诅咒。正如资源“应该”增加收入一样——他们不这样做就建立了传统的诅咒——他们也应该允许更多的闲暇。最近的跨国数据表明，情况恰恰相反。我们提供了解释这种差异的初步步骤：在有缺陷的制度下，资源可能会对休闲和收入从福变成祸，特别是当政策制定者更倾向于就业而不是休闲时。直接（重新）分配资源财富而不是扩大政府就业是一种政策解决方案。