Part 2/8:
The phenomenon often referred to as the "resource curse" suggests that nations with abundant natural resources experience slower economic growth and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer resources. Russia, with its vast gas reserves, is emblematic of this paradox. Since the 1990s, while the oil sector has purportedly driven the economy, a significant portion of the population still contends with economic hardship.
This inconsistency raises critical questions: Why has Russia not prospered more? Is it suffering from a version of the Dutch disease, a term that describes how large influxes of natural resource revenues can harm a country’s industrial sector?