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Title: Oil and economic development in OPEC countries, with case studies about Iraq and Algeria

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:5115815

This dissertation examines the impact of the increase in oil prices in 1973 and thereafter on economic development in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in general, and in Iraq and Algeria in particular. It attempts to investigate the extent to which these countries have succeeded in utilizing oil revenues to achieve their projected goals: diversification of their economies in order to reduce dependence on exporting crude oil which is an exhaustible resource; and acceleration of the rate of growth of the non-oil sector in order to increase its contribution to GDP and foreign-exchange earnings as well as to maintain the growth of the economy in the post-oil age. While the increase in oil revenues greatly reduced the capital constraint to growth, it did not remove all other constraints at the same time. Thus, bottlenecks in transportation, institutions, skilled labor, raw and construction materials remained important obstacles. According to the criteria used by this study to judge the performance of the Iraqi and the Algerian economies after 1973, both countries did quite well. However, one of the findings about Iraq is that while the rate of growth of real per capita GDP accelerated after 1973, the rate of growth of real per capita non-oil GDP did not. Algeria succeeded in diversifying her economy, since the rate of growth of non-oil GDP accelerated after 1973, compared to the earlier period.

Research Organization:
Florida State Univ., Tallahassee (USA)
OSTI ID:
5115815
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English