Though traditionally popular investment vehicles, natural resources lost momentum over the past few years with the advent of financial futures and the continued growth of the U.S. stock market. However, they are now experiencing a renaissance as an increased tightening of oil, gas, grains, metals, and other natural resources is transforming them into a virtual, if not literal, goldmine of opportunity.
Public policies in taxation and revenue management are key to ensuring natural resource wealth results in economic development. Tax policy and systems should ensure that whenever natural resources are extracted, the host state receives a fair share of revenue. Revenue management policies are required to ensure that government revenues from natural resources are wisely used to finance sustainable economic development. This Economic Paper analyses key issues in natural resource taxation and revenue management and recommends policies that can improve countries’ economic performance. The discussion draws on economic theory, empirical evidence and the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Oil to Cash explores one option to help countries with new oil revenue avoid the so-called resource curse: just give the money directly to citizens. A universal, transparent, and regular cash transfer would not only provide a concrete benefit to regular people, but would also create powerful incentives for citizens to hold their government accountable. Oil to Cash details how and where this idea could work and how policymakers can learn from the experiences with cash transfers in places like Mexico, Mongolia, and Alaska.
This volume focuses on the political economy surrounding the detailed decisions that governments make at each step of the value chain for natural resource management. From the perspective of public interest or good governance, many resource-dependent developing countries pursue apparently short-sighted and sub-optimal policies in relation to the extraction and capture of resource rents, and to spending and savings from their resource endowments. This work contextualizes these micro-level choices and outcomes.
This text is an examination of the economics of using natural resources in the modern economy. Presenting economic concepts essential to examining how resources can be sustained, extracted and harvested extensive use is made of diagrams and accompanying algebraic models.
Mexico has large extractive industries and it traditionally has raised sizable fiscal revenues from the oil and gas sector. A confluence of factors—elevated commodity prices, financial challenges of the state-owned oil company Pemex, and revenue needs for financing social and public investment spending over the medium term—suggest that a review of Mexico’s taxation regimes for natural resources would be opportune, against the backdrop of a comprehensive approach to tackling Mexico’s challenges. This paper identifies opportunities for redesigning mining taxation to increase somewhat the revenue intake while maintaining the favorable investment profile of the sector. It also discusses recent reforms to the oil and gas fiscal regime and future reform considerations, with attention to the attractiveness of investment on commercial terms—an issue that should be placed in the context of an overall reform of Pemex’s business strategy and possibly of the energy sector more generally.
How to analyze and understand investment opportunities in the resources market Investing in resource markets is quite different from other sectors–extreme cyclicality; very long cycles; huge corrections; continual mergers and acquisitions; and, huge capital needs. Written by industry pioneer Adrian Day, Investing in Resources: How to Profit from the Outsized Potential and Avoid the Outsized Risks details the factors that affect investing in resource markets, and how, if an investor understands those factors, the resource market can be a great place to realize very strong gains. The book: Explains the major factors driving resource prices higher, including new demand from China and the difficulty in finding new economic resources Discusses how the resource industry is changing, and addresses where we are in the "Super Cycle" Details how to profit by investing in base metals, gold, silver, and agriculture, while explaining the peculiar political, environmental, and social risks inherent in resource markets In recent years, deciding how to minimize the excessive risks of investing in resource markets has proven difficult for even the most experienced investors. Thanks to Investing in Resources, the task of how and where to invest in this lucrative market is made easier.
