Search Results (7)

Mining has significantly shaped Eastern European economies, particularly during their transition from centrally planned to market-oriented systems. While abundant natural resources can lead to a “resource curse” that hinders economic growth, they also offer opportunities for sustainable development if managed effectively. This study investigates the dynamics of mineral resource rents in Eastern Europe, shaped by economic freedom, urbanization, educational achievement, and international trade, from 1990 to 2021. Using methods such as MMQR, AMG Robustness Analysis, CCEMG, fixed effects, cointegration, Granger causality, and unit root tests, the study provides a comprehensive analysis of these relationships. The findings reveal that educational achievement reduces reliance on mineral resource rents by fostering human capital and supporting economic diversification. Urbanization similarly decreases resource dependency by promoting innovation and technological advancement. Trade openness also shows a negative link with mineral rents, suggesting that global integration facilitates shifts toward more advanced, technology-driven sectors. Economic freedom presents mixed results, highlighting the need for strong governance to ensure sustainable and equitable outcomes. This study is novel in integrating these factors into a unified framework, specifically applied to Eastern Europe’s post-communist transition, a region often overlooked in global resource studies. The results contribute most directly to Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Quality Education by demonstrating how human capital development reduces resource dependence and promotes economic resilience, and to Sustainable Development Goal 8 on Decent Work and Economic Growth, by showing that trade openness and economic diversification can drive sustainable economic progress. Ultimately, the study offers actionable insights for balancing economic growth with environmental and social sustainability in transitional economies. Full article

The Middle East and North African (MENA) region is among the regions most impacted by global warming and climate change. At the same time, the region accounts for 58% of global oil reserves and 43% of global natural gas reserves. It is, therefore, important to assess the role of natural resource abundance in the environmental degradation faced by MENA resource-abundant countries. This study contributes to this research area by exploring the short- and long-term repercussions of natural resources on the ecological footprint (EFP) of eight resource-rich MENA countries between 2000 and 2021. The research performs both aggregate and disaggregate assessments by considering the total resource rents, as well as specific rents of oil, natural gas, and minerals. The pooled mean group estimator indicates that a rise of 1% in total natural resources induces an increase of 0.053% in the EFP, implying that natural resources are harmful to the environment. The disaggregate analysis shows that oil rents have the most adverse environmental effects in the long run, followed by natural gas. Finally, mineral rents are determined to be neutral vis-à-vis the environment. In light of these findings, policy recommendations for reducing the adverse environmental impacts of natural resources are suggested. Full article

The food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus has gained increased attention, resulting in numerous studies on management approaches. Themes of resource use, and their subsequent scarcity and economic rents, which are within the application domain of the World Trade Model, are ripe for study, with the continuing development of forward- and backward-facing economic data. Scenarios of future food and energy demand, relating to supply chains, as well as direct and indirect resource uses, are modelled in this paper. While it is possible to generate a substantial number of economic and environmental scenarios, our focus is on the development of an overarching approach involving a range of scenarios. We intend to establish a benchmark of possibilities in the context of the debates surrounding the Paris Climate Agreement (COP21) and the Green New Deal. Our approach draws heavily from the existing literature on international agreements and targets, notably that of COP21, whose application we associate with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP). Relevant factor uses and scarcity rent increases are found and localized, e.g., on the optimal qualities of water, minerals, and land. A clear policy implication is that, in all scenarios, processes of energy transition, raw material use reduction, and recycling must be strengthened. Full article

Women have a right to excel in all spheres of activity. However, their roles are mainly confined in the resource extraction industry due to masculinity bias. African women are considered exemplary cases where women have low access to finance and economic opportunities to progress in the natural resource industry. This study examines the role of women’s autonomy in mineral resource extraction by controlling ecological footprints, financial development, environmental degradation, economic growth, and changes in the general price level in the Democratic Republic of the Congo data from 1975–2019. The autoregressive distributed lag estimates show that in the short-run, women’s autonomy decreases mineral resource rents; however, this result disappears in the long-run and the positive role of women’s autonomy in increasing resource capital is confirmed. Ecological footprints are in jeopardy from saving mineral resources both in the short- and long-term. Financial development negatively impacts mineral resource rents, while women’s access to finance supports the mineral resource agenda. The positive role of women in environmental protection has led to increased mineral resource rents in the short- and long-term. Women’s social and economic autonomy increases mineral resource rents in the short-term, while it has evaporated in the long-term. The Granger causality has confirmed the unidirectional linkages running from women’s green ecological footprints, access to finance, and women participating in environmental protection to mineral resource rents in a country. The variance decomposition analysis has shown that women’s economic autonomy and access to finance will exert more significant variance shocks to mineral resource rents over the next ten years’ period. The results conclude the positive role of women’s freedom in the mineral resource sustainability agenda. Thus, there is a high need to authorize women through access to finance and economic decisions to restore natural resource capital nationwide. Full article

The depletion of non-renewable natural resources (primarily mineral and energy resources) and its assessment is a problem that is analyzed based on the concept of sustainable development. Mineral resource depletion assessment is particularly important for resource-based economies. It provides for assessing the impact of mineral asset disposal that results from the suspension or termination of operations conducted by a mining company due to insurmountable circumstances. The results of such an event will be manifested at the national, regional, and local levels and felt by mining companies, suppliers, workers, the population of the territory, and other stakeholders. The study clarifies the attributes and essence of mineral resource depletion, analyzes the advantages and limitations of the existing tools for assessing mineral resource depletion, identifies depletion factors, describes a methodology for assessing mineral resource depletion, and contains a case study of a tin deposit. The results of the study contribute to the development of the theory on the depletion of non-renewable natural resources. They provide for assessing losses to social wellbeing that can be caused by stopping the use of profitable mineral reserves. Full article

The significant resource potential of the Arctic has attracted the attention of its adjacent countries and extra-regional states. The mineral and raw material base of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF) comprises a wide range of minerals. However, due to its hydrocarbon reserves, the Arctic is considered to be the most important geopolitical and geo-economic macro-region for Russia. A significant portion of the Arctic hydrocarbons (about 19%) is concentrated in the territory of Russia’s shelf. The extraction of Arctic marine oil and gas resources and ensuring the sustainability of the Russian energy complex depend significantly on the level of Arctic development. Thus, the pace and quality of the development of AZRF are strategically important to ensure the national interests of the country. It has been proven that the implementation of the state program for AZRF development and strategic plans of the largest companies operating in the region consolidate the raw material nature of AZRF development. Rent becomes the main form of income. This article addresses the main directions of the region’s development and the factors that prevent a high level of industrialization, which increase attention to the withdrawal and redistribution of rental income. The article considers the Russian and foreign experiences of withdrawal and redistribution of oil and gas rental income, and analyzes the level of socio-economic development of AZRF. The authors suggest a methodology for assessing the impact of a country’s area and population size on the ability to achieve a high income due to hydrocarbons. The authors also explain the principles of rental income redistribution in the region as a basis for improving the level of AZRF’s socio-economic development and as a condition for transition from the “colonial model” of development to the “sustainable development” model. The study results can be used to elaborate a mechanism for rental income redistribution in AZRF and state programs for the region’s development. Full article

To clarify the effects of generalized capitals and energy footprint on aggregate incomes and total carbon dioxide emissions, a cross-country panel analysis is applied in the present study. The generalized capitals included in this study are human capital, manufacture capital, natural capitals (as rents of fossil fuels, forest, and minerals). The energy footprint is represented by the primary energy consumption to index the overall domestic energy use. A Cobb–Douglas production function is used to empirically study on a panel of 21 European Union countries. Annual data of rents of natural capitals are used to represent the economic value of natural capitals that flows to the economy. The following are the main findings of this study: (1) Employing human and manufactural capital makes contributions to income growth and carbon reduction. This study’s evidence guides to clarify the misunderstanding of capital and capitalism. Innovations through well-developed and well-managed human and manufactured capital can help sustain income and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. (2) Energy footprint is the vital determinant to total carbon dioxide emissions and hence the most important part of climate policy. (3) The value currently commeasured by monetary terms and compiled by the World Bank is evidenced, not persistently contributed to the income, rather contributed to total carbon dioxide emissions, for the sake of the energy-intensive attributes in the resource-extracting industry. The natural capitals represented by the rent of extracting endowed natural resources can only represent part of the value of natural capitals to human beings. The virtue values of natural capitals in terms of amenity and life supporting are inevitable, but intangible and hence incommensurable. This value is still ignored and unable to enter the contemporary gate of monetary national accounting system. Full article