Natural Resource Dependence and Monopolized Imports

Rabah Arezki; Ana M. Fernandes; Federico Merchán; Ha Thi Hong Nguyen; Tristan Reed

doi:10.1162/rest.a.268

Natural Resource Dependence and Monopolized Imports

Rabah Arezki¹; Ana M. Fernandes²; Federico Merchán³; Ha Thi Hong Nguyen⁴; Tristan Reed⁵

¹ Director of Research at the French National Research Center (CNRS)-Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, IRD, CERDI, F-63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France · ² Lead Economist at the World Bank Development Research Group · ³ Institute for the World Economy (IfW) and Phd in economics from Kiel University, Germany · ⁴ Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) · ⁵ Economist at the World Bank Development Research Group and Affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development(BREAD)

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2025 open access

Abstract Countries with greater commodity export intensity have more concentrated markets for imported goods. Import market concentration is associated with higher domestic prices, suggesting that markups due to greater concentration outweigh any potential cost efficiency. Tariffs, non-tariff measures, and tariff evasion are mechanisms that concentrate import markets. These results suggest a novel channel for the resource curse stemming from the monopolization of imports.

DOI: 10.1162/rest.a.268
Pages: 1-36
Language: en
Export: BibTeX
Sources: openalex crossref