Nexus between natural resource endowments and economic growth in selected African countries

Africa began implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 emphasizing on sustainable management and effective use of natural capital to spur economic growth (Goals 12, 14, and 15). This study using World Bank data sets from 46 African countries selected for the years 2000 to 2022, examined the nexus between natural resource endowments and economic growth in Africa. We used the system generalized method of moments (sys-GMM) and dynamic panel threshold regression (DPTR) to analyze the data. The findings of the two-step sys-GMM estimation using 'xtabond2' revealed that when the institutional quality variable is added and excluded from the model, natural resource dependence negatively impacts economic growth, but the impact is greater when the institution is excluded. In the estimation of the interaction variable of natural resource dependence and institutional variable included in the model, natural resource dependence positively impacts economic growth. The results of the DPTR using "xthenreg" showed that when the threshold value of natural resource dependence is ≤ 1.73% of gross domestic product, natural resource dependence has a positive impact on economic growth and a negative impact when the threshold value is above 1.73%. Similarly, when the institutional quality threshold is ≤ 0.277, natural resources dependence impacts economic growth negatively; above the threshold (0.277), the impact is positive. In conclusion, natural resource endowment is a curse with no or low-quality institutions and a blessing with high-quality institutions. Thus, building strong institutions and proper utilization of natural resources helps to minimize the adverse impact of resource endowments on economic growth.