NATURAL RESOURCES: COULD EVER BE A BLESSING? THE RUSSIAN CASE

The debate on the best way to achieve economic development for a country rich of natural resources has been a matter of discussion and disagreements. In this paper a possible solution has been provided. Through a case study an in-depth analysis on the Russian economy will prove that a unique reliance on a single sector - energy sector - is a twofold mistake. The Dutch Disease model developed by Corden and Neary as well as the Gabaix’s theory of Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations will dig into the Russian economic structure in order to develop a complete and a complementary perspective. The main results of the paper state that the long-term consequences of this strategy outweigh the initial achieved economic improvements. The natural resource curse is a real economic problem and it is only a matter of time before the concealed symptoms display and spread throughout the whole industrial organization of the country damaging inexorably the manufacturing sector - the real source for a stable and sustainable economic development.