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Published in:
2015 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Micro-Level Effects of Oil Resources: Insights from a Survey of Angolan Microcredit Clients
Authors : Allan Cain, Ivar Kolstad, Arne Wiig
Published in: New Approaches to the Governance of Natural Resources
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
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Walking the streets of central Luanda, the capital of oil- and diamond-rich Angola, you cannot help but notice the stark disparities. The tall office buildings of the oil and diamond companies present a marked contrast to the poverty of the children selling small items to passing cars in the streets. If you venture a little further from the city centre, there are large slum areas where people live with limited access to basic necessities such as clean water or medical facilities. It is not that inequality and poverty cannot be found in other countries. However, research shows that these problems are greater in natural resource-rich countries such as Angola than they are in other countries. This phenomenon is often called the ‘resource curse’ or the ‘paradox of plenty’ (Auty, 1993; Karl, 1997). Based on available data, Angola has one of the world’s highest Gini coefficients,1 even when compared to other oil-rich states, as illustrated in Figure 5.1.