This study measures the effect of extractive resource sector dependence on long-term income growth using the natural experiment of coal mining in 409 U.S. counties. The findings suggest a one standard deviation increase in resource dependence is associated with an estimated 0.6 percentage point drop in annual growth rates of per capita personal income. We also measure the extent to which the resource curse operates through disincentives to education, and find significant effects, but results indicate that this education channel explains only perhaps 25% of the curse.
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