Politics of Extractive Resources
How does extractive resource wealth impact politics and economic growth? How should governments manage their energy, mineral, and metals resources? What risks do governments bear when intervening directly in energy markets? These questions are at the heart of political development in energy-rich countries across the world.
In Power Grab: Political Survival Through Extractive Resource Nationalization, Prof. Mahdavi examines the role of state ownership in extractive resource operations, showing how resource nationalization has profound effects on government revenues, diplomatic relationships, and political stability. The book and surrounding research products identify a systematic explanation for existing puzzles of why oil-rich leaders like Qaddafi and Putin built enduring dictatorships while others like King Idris and the Shah of Iran fell from rule. This research area further provides policy expectations for state intervention in extractive resources that will drive the clean energy transition, such as cobalt, lithium, and rare-earth minerals used in large-scale batteries.
Other research products in this theme include the following:
Measuring the impact of extractive resource expropriation on human rights violations and repression in the Global South.
Mitigating corruption in transnational energy and petroleum development.
Evaluating the impact of oil wealth on incumbent reelection prospects in Middle East parliamentary elections.
Creating an original National Oil Company (NOC) database covering every oil-producing country in the world since 1905.
Providing a new parsimonious framework to estimate petroleum wealth per capita every year for 187 countries since 1932.