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Rabah Arezki, Thorvaldur Gylfason, and Amadou Sy (eds.). 2011. Beyond the Curse: Policies to Harness the power of Natural Resources. Washington: International Monetary Fund. 275 pp.
For any state with abundant natural resources, it is taken as given that it becomes the key to unlocking economic development and ensuring sustainable economic growth. As it turns out in many cases, especially in developing countries, managing natural resources for the benefit of the citizenry has proven illusory. Endowed with natural resources, some countries have found it problematic to transform and harness their resources for development purposes. The book seeks to illuminate the various impediments and prospects for harnessing natural resources for developmental purposes. It is divided into five parts.
Part 1, with two contributions, provides an analysis of issues regarding the commodity markets and how they are affected by the macroeconomic environment. Using various case studies, Gylfason's contribution illuminates the various policy challenges to natural resource exploitation for development and also proffers policy recommendations. Radetzki's chapter analyzes the historical issues in the centrality of primary commodities in enhancing economic development offering comprehensive examples, concluding that "a heavy concentration on commodity production in a national economy is not detrimental per se. Diversification out of commodity sector that has lost its comparative advantage and superior profitability is certainly...