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Brock Smith

Bio: Brock Smith is an academic researcher from Montana State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Resource curse & Boom. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 17 publications receiving 417 citations. Previous affiliations of Brock Smith include Montana State University Billings & University of California, Davis.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors evaluated the impact of major natural resource discoveries since 1950 on GDP per capita using panel fixed-effects estimation and resource discoveries in countries that were not previously resource-rich as a plausibly exogenous source of variation.

212 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how the production of shale oil and gas significantly increased in the United States and examine how this energy boom has affected regional crime rates throughout the USA, finding that, as a result of the ongoing shale energy boom, shale-rich counties experienced faster growth in rates of both property and violent crimes including rape, assault, murder, robbery, burglary, larceny and grand-theft auto.
Abstract: Over the past decade, the production of shale oil and gas significantly increased in the United States. This paper uniquely examines how this energy boom has affected regional crime rates throughout the United States. There is evidence that, as a result of the ongoing shale-energy boom, shale-rich counties experienced faster growth in rates of both property and violent crimes including rape, assault, murder, robbery, burglary, larceny and grand-theft auto. These results are particularly robust for rates of assault, and less so for other types of crimes. Examining the migratory behavior of convicted sex offenders indicates that boomtowns disproportionately attract convicted felons. Policy makers should anticipate these effects and invest in public infrastructure accordingly.

94 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how the production of tight oil and shale gas significantly increased in the United States and find positive effects on rates of various property and violent crimes in shale-rich counties.

66 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors measure rural poverty by counting people who live in darkness at night: combining high-resolution global satellite data on satellite data collected by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Abstract: Do oil booms reduce rural poverty and inequality? To study this we measure rural poverty by counting people who live in darkness at night: combining high-resolution global satellite data on...

46 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article showed that preindustrial farm employment shares can be estimated from probate occupation reports and that only 60% employed in farming in England in 1560-1579 and 1653-1660, consistent with the high incomes indicated by wages.
Abstract: Gregory Clark argued in A Farewell to Alms that preindustrial societies, including England, were Malthusian. Day wages show incomes were trendless: as high in Europe in the medieval era as in 1800, even in England. The opposed view is that England and the Netherlands grew substantially from 1200 to 1800. Early day wages overestimate living standards. Here we show that preindustrial farm employment shares can be estimated from probate occupation reports. These imply only 60 percent employed in farming in England in 1560–1579 and 1653–1660, consistent with the high incomes indicated by wages. Day wages do measure preindustrial living standards.

25 citations


Cited by
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01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: This article investigated whether income inequality affects subsequent growth in a cross-country sample for 1965-90, using the models of Barro (1997), Bleaney and Nishiyama (2002) and Sachs and Warner (1997) with negative results.
Abstract: We investigate whether income inequality affects subsequent growth in a cross-country sample for 1965-90, using the models of Barro (1997), Bleaney and Nishiyama (2002) and Sachs and Warner (1997), with negative results. We then investigate the evolution of income inequality over the same period and its correlation with growth. The dominating feature is inequality convergence across countries. This convergence has been significantly faster amongst developed countries. Growth does not appear to influence the evolution of inequality over time. Outline

3,770 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The challenges that are faced in successfully managing resource wealth, the evidence on country performance, and the reasons for disappointing results are reviewed in this article, with some successes (such as Botswana and Malaysia) and more failures.
Abstract: Developing economies have found it hard to use natural resource wealth to improve their economic performance. Utilizing resource endowments is a multistage economic and political problem that requires private investment to discover and extract the resource, fiscal regimes to capture revenue, judicious spending and investment decisions, and policies to manage volatility and mitigate adverse impacts on the rest of the economy. Experience is mixed, with some successes (such as Botswana and Malaysia) and more failures. This paper reviews the challenges that are faced in successfully managing resource wealth, the evidence on country performance, and the reasons for disappointing results.

353 citations

Book
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, a team of leading economic historians reconstruct Britain's national accounts for the first time right back into the thirteenth century to show what really happened quantitatively during the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, revealing how the transition to modern economic growth built on the earlier foundations of a persistent upward trend in GDP per capita which doubled between 1270 and 1700.
Abstract: This is a definitive new account of Britain's economic evolution from a backwater of Europe in 1270 to the hub of the global economy in 1870. A team of leading economic historians reconstruct Britain's national accounts for the first time right back into the thirteenth century to show what really happened quantitatively during the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution. Contrary to traditional views of the earlier period as one of Malthusian stagnation, they reveal how the transition to modern economic growth built on the earlier foundations of a persistent upward trend in GDP per capita which doubled between 1270 and 1700. Featuring comprehensive estimates of population, land use, agricultural production, industrial and service-sector production and GDP per capita, as well as analysis of their implications, this will be an essential reference for anyone interested in British economic history and the origins of modern economic growth more generally.

247 citations

01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that resource exports are no longer significant while value of subsoil assets has a significant positive effect on growth, but the World Bank measure is proportional to current rents, and thus is also endogenous.
Abstract: Brunnschweiler and Bulte (2008) [1] , [2] provide cross-country evidence that resource curse is a “red herring” once one corrects for endogeneity of resource exports and allows resource abundance to affect growth. Their results show that resource exports are no longer significant while value of subsoil assets has a significant positive effect on growth. But the World Bank measure of subsoil assets is proportional to current rents, and thus is also endogenous. Furthermore, their results suffer from an unfortunate data mishap, omitted variables bias, weakness of instruments, violation of exclusion restrictions and misspecification error. Correcting for these issues and instrumenting resource exports with values of proven reserves at the beginning of the sample period, there is no evidence for resource curse either and subsoil assets are no longer significant. However, the same evidence suggests that resource exports or rents boost growth in stable countries, but also make especially already volatile countries more volatile and thus indirectly worsen growth prospects. Ignoring the volatility channel may lead one to erroneously conclude that there is no effect of resources on growth.

233 citations