The Study of Economic, Financial, and Political Risks on the Resource Curse Vulnerability Index in the Countries of the Mena Region

Today, many risks, including economic, financial, and political ones, threaten the economies of countries. On the other hand, governments try to manage the negative consequences and neutralize or minimize their impact on the economy. A review of the situation shows that most underdeveloped and developing countries, especially those rich in natural resources (resource rents), have been severely affected by these internal and external shocks (resource curse) due to their high dependence on oil revenues; in contrast, developed countries have suffered less by adopting appropriate policies. The purpose of this study is to construct and introduce a composite resource curse vulnerability index and then investigate the impact of each of the economic, financial, and political risks on the resource curse vulnerability index. Therefore, using the latest available data, the econometric approach of panel data was performed for 14 selected countries in the Mena region from 2005 to 2018. Results indicate an inverse and significant relationship between independent variable risks on the dependent variable (resource curse vulnerability index), which confirms the research hypotheses.