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Open research questions in Natural Resources and Economic Development

27 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,157 Natural Resources and Economic Development papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • 1. Nigeria and other African countries need to develop institutional quality (Benghida, 2017). This is because these countries are believed to have weak institutions that are ineffective and inefficient. 2. Corruption is a major bane of the African economic problem. Things may not change in the area of economic development if the governments across Africa fail to deal decisively with corruption (Diamond, & Mosbacher, 2013; Shaxson, 2007). 3. Equitable distribution of oil revenue is very crucial. Development of oil-producing areas, effective corporate social responsibility of the oil-producing companies, and the oil-civil society nexus are so important (Okpanachi, & Andrews, 2012).

    Nigeria's Example of the African Resource Curse Phenomenon: Content Analysis Approach · 2026 · DOI

  • To shift Nasarawa State away from a subnational rentier pattern and towards more active and developmental solid minerals governance, the following recommendations emerge from the analysis: Improve transparency and predictability of derivation payments. i. Federal and state authorities should establish clear reporting and auditing mechanisms for solid minerals derivation, so Nasarawa can reliably know what it receives and plan around mineral revenue as a meaningful, not marginal, component of its fiscal base (National Bureau of Statistics, 2016; Premium Times, 2012). Strengthen the implementation of the 2018 revenue law. Nasarawa State should invest in administrative capacity and anti-corruption measures within the ministries and agencies responsible for implementing the Environmental Degradation Control and Revenue Collection Law, streamline collection procedures, and digitise records to reduce leakages and improve enforcement (Nasarawa State Government, 2018). Formalise and support artisanal mining. The state can develop programs to register artisanal and small-scale miners, provide technical and financial support, and link them to formal markets, thereby improving productivity, environmental outcomes, and revenue collection, while gradually integrating the sector into a broader development strategy (Ogezi, 2005; Ezeaku, 2012; Azobu, 2015). Develop forward and backward linkages. Nasarawa should encourage investments in industries that use local minerals such as cement, glass, tiles, and agricultural inputs through targeted infrastructure, public-private partnerships, and incentives, turning solid minerals from isolated extraction into a source of industrial and agricultural growth (Eyre & Agba, 2007; Gyang et al., 2010). REFERENCES 1. Ake, C. (2003). A political economy of Africa. Lagos, Nigeria: Longman Page 2352 www.rsisinternational.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING, MANAGEMENT & APPLIED SCIENCE (IJLTEMAS) ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XV, Issue VI, June 2026 2. Akongwale, S., Ayodele, O., & Udefuna, P. (2013). Exploring the solid minerals sector for economic diversification in Nigeria. Journal of Economic Policy, 8(2), 45 - 62. 3. Arnold, G. (1997). Africa: A modern history. London, United Kingdom: Atlantic Books. 4. Azobu, C. (2015). Governance challenges in artisanal and small-scale mining in Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Environmental Studies, 6(1), 21 - 35. 5. Beblawi, H. (1987). The rentier state in the Arab world. In H. Beblawi & G. Luciani (Eds.), The rentier state (pp. 49–62). London, United Kingdom: Croom Helm. 6. Britannica. (2025, December 9). Economic development. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/money/economic-development 7.

    Political Economy of Solid Minerals Governance in Nasarawa State, Nigeria: A Rentier State Analysis (1999 - 2020) · 2026 · DOI

  • The study makes the following recommendations; i. ii. Natural resource firms should prioritize the use of short-term leverage to drive the efficiency of their assets. This will enable them to quickly adjust when commodity prices fluctuate, rather than being encumbered by non-current borrowing expense. They should moderate the use of the debt-equity mix in funding their operations, particularly due to incessant price fluctuations in resource prices. This will enable firms to avoid excessive fixed interest obligations and serious financial distress. https://doi.org/10.33003/fujafr-2026.v4i2.374.163-172 170 Markjackson & Moses (2026). Capital structure and financial performance of listed natural resource firms in Nigeria . iii. Since long-term leverage is positive and insignificant, firms in the sector should use long-term leverage sparingly. This is because it exerts a benign effect on AER compared to higher borrowing expenses.

    Capital structure and financial performance of listed natural resource firms in Nigeria · 2026 · DOI

  • While aggregate indicators documented substantial Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into metallurgical industrial parks, the sub-national distributional consequences remained critically underexplored prior to this study.

    Resource Nationalism, Enclave Industrialization, and Regional Divergence: A Spatial Econometric Assessment of Indonesia's Hilirisasi Mandate · 2026 · DOI

  • Advantages of Investing in Local Processing This study acknowledges several limitations: 1) Data Availability: Political instability in Libya hinders access to reliable and up - to - date data. 2) Economic Variability: Fluctuations in global oil prices and domestic conflicts complicate the assessment of long - term benefits. 3) Generalizability: Findings may not apply to other oil - producing countries due to differing political, economic, and social contexts. 4) Dynamic Market Conditions: Geopolitical events and technological advancements can alter the attractiveness of export versus local processing strategies.

    An Evaluation of Libya's Crude Oil Export Dynamics and Domestic Refining Capacity · 2026 · DOI

  • This article, based on new fieldwork in the understudied charcoal economy in South Sudan, explores the hierarchies and systems of self-employed producers, cash-for-piecework workers, middlemen and transporters, large-scale investors, and the public and defence sector financiers, landlords, brokers and security providers who all work in this political economy of forestry and charcoal-making.

    The costs and values of life in South Sudan's militarised charcoal economy · 2024 · DOI

  • Moreover, we postulate and investigate four possible explanations behind the EITI’s mixed results on long-term growth: the lack of evidence of a negative relationship between natural resource abundance and long-term economic growth over the study period, a possible increasing reliance on non-resource taxes, a possible signaling effect targeted by member countries, and the lack of effect of EITI implementation on reducing corruption.

    How does implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) affect economic growth? Evidence from developing countries · 2024 · DOI

  • This article claims that these revenues are insufficient to economically reproduce SUR, as subnational rentier states generally overspend beyond their means.

    Unconditional Transfers Are Not Oil: The Economic Foundations of Subnational Undemocratic Regime Reproduction · 2020 · DOI

  • While the state has been able to increase the government’s take of the country’s hydrocarbon rents, its ability to use its natural gas and associated rents to alter the country’s socioeconomic trajectory has been limited by the path-dependent effects of Bolivia’s neoliberal turn and the sociomaterial constraints of natural-gas extraction, transport, and use.

    A Neoliberal Nationalization? · 2010 · DOI

  • Observed data are often inconsistent with the Hotelling rule, suggesting that other characteristics of nonrenewable resource supply, including exploration, heterogeneous ore quality, technological progress, and capital investment, are important determinants of the dynamic behavior of resource prices.

    Nonrenewable Resource Scarcity · 1998

  • There are commodities, such as cassava starch, animal and dairy products and other less prominent crops, whose exploitation under colonial rule has not been studied; and, with regard to the organization of the export trade, the relationship between the colonial state and metropolitan (industrial and merchant) capital has not been adequately defined.

    The Production and Export of Hides and Skins in Colonial Northern Nigeria, 1900–1945 · 1992 · DOI

  • One limitation is that the most consequential practices are often the least transparent, particularly where elites have incentives to obscure financial, coercive, or contractual routines.

    From National Oil Company to Patronage Machine? Nilepet and the Governance Politics of South Sudan's Oil Sector · 2026 · DOI

  • To bridge this important gap in the literature, we hypothesize that institutional qualities matter in the relationship between economic growth and non-oil exports.

    Analysis of Non-Oil Exports – Economic Growth Relationship in Nigeria: The Role of Institutional Qualities · 2023 · DOI

  • Though much research has focused on possible effects of resource wealth on the formal economy, little is known about how such wealth affects the informal sector, a substantial portion of global economic activity.

    Natural resource wealth and the informal economy · 2021 · DOI

  • However, their present role is largely limited to the provision of generic products and services, and it appears unlikely that this will change due to financial and other constraints.

    Limits of linkage-based development: an assessment of the oil and gas sector in North Patagonia, Argentina · 2020 · DOI

  • Whereas much attention has been paid to weak institutions as an explanation for the resource curse that has marred Africa’s petroleum economies, the article points to the interplay between oil markets and domestic politics that is still under-researched.

    Muted market signals: politics, petroleum investments and regulatory developments in Tanzania · 2019 · DOI

  • In Niger, actors contested the lack of standards in the Chinese oil industry but capitalized on the opportunities that linkages to the industry had produced.

    Standardized capitalism? Negotiating the oil industry’s dis/entanglement in Niger and Uganda · 2018 · DOI

  • This article addresses an important gap in research on the causes of civil war: the lack of a theory that explains why lootable resources like alluvial diamonds are linked to civil war in some cases and peace in others.

    Diamonds, Blood, and Taxes · 2005 · DOI

  • In spite of the robust stock of literature on the problem of state failure in Nigeria and Africa, there are scarcely any rigorous studies that link state failure to the growing security menace in the Nigerian oil industry.

    State failure and growing insecurity in the Nigerian oil industry : Nigeria · 2004

  • It remains to be seen whether the government's objectives and its overall program of and economic liberalization can be implemented in the face of entrenched resistance within its own rent-seeking bureaucracy.

    Privatization in morocco: the politics of development · 1997

  • This paper examines the organization of the production and export of hides and skins in colonial Northern Nigeria both to fill a gap in the literature on colonial economic history and to raise questions about the true position of the colonial state vis-à-vis metropolitan capital.

    The Production and Export of Hides and Skins in Colonial Northern Nigeria, 1900–1945 · 1992 · DOI

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27 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,157 Natural Resources and Economic Development papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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