PHD Studentship: The political economy of extractive industries across the world: a synthetic control analysis from 1970 to 2020.

Lead Supervisor:

Dr Luca Tasciotti

The resource curse phenomenon has been extensively studied in both economics and political science. Existing discussions centre on understanding the reasons why countries with large endowments of natural resources display worse socio-economic indicators – indeed, a resource curse – while few manage to escape the resource curse trap with positive GDP growth, improvements in democracy, reductions in corruption, or higher levels of income equality. Despite the abundance of studies on the resource curse, this topic still faces a significant knowledge gap. Specifically, most of the existing studies on the resource curse use a macroeconomic dimension, rely on single country case studies observed for limited time periods, and offer results based on regression-type analysis.

This research project – tailored for a Ph.D. student – aims at addressing this knowledge gap by establishing a new research area within the resource curse topic. The project will study the effects that resource abundance has on a range of socio-economic indicators and will aim at explaining how and why some countries experience a resource curse while others manage to avoid it. The project will include more than 150 countries observed from 1970 to 2020, and it will combine macroeconomic and microeconomic quantitative analysis. It will use a relatively new econometric tool, the synthetic control method (SCM). In doing so, the project will address the knowledge gap identified above.

In more detail, this research project aims to:

• Review the findings of the consolidated literature on the resource curse.
• Produce a quantitative synthetic control analysis in which the evolution of a range of socio-economic indicators (related to economic growth, labour market, education and democracy, among others) in resource-rich countries are compared with how those indicators would have evolved if resources had not been abundant. This part of the research project will aim at assessing which resource-rich countries suffered (or did not suffer) a resource curse.
• Understand how and why the resource curse manifested in some countries but not in others. This part of the research project will combine microeconomic data – in particular, those related to the market power of resource related firms – with macroeconomic data (among others, on institutional quality and on how resource-rich countries invested rents from natural resources: investments to further exploit the use of natural resource or to foster growth in other sectors of the economy) to identify the channels by which the resource curse manifests.

The inclusion of a large pool of countries observed for 50 years will allow us to understand how the effects of the resource abundance have differed among countries in the same/different geographical locations, endowed with the same/different natural resources, and across time.

The research questions this project aim at answering will be partly addressed within Ph.D., and partly via future research.

Bursary available (subject to satisfactory performance):  

Year 1:  £17,668 (FT); Year 2: In line with UKRI rate; Year 3: In line with UKRI rate

 In addition, the successful candidate will receive a contribution to tuition fees equivalent to the university’s Home rate, currently £4,596 (FT), for the duration of their scholarship.  International applicants will need to pay the remainder tuition fee for the duration of their scholarship. This fee is subject to an annual increase.

Person Specification of Essential (E) or Desirable (D) requirements:

Education and Training:
• 1st Class or 2nd class, First Division (Upper Second Class) honours degree or a taught master’s degree with a minimum average of 60% in all areas of assessment (UK or UK equivalent) in a relevant area to the proposed research project (E)
• For those whose first language is not English and/or if from a country where English is not the majority spoken language (as recognised by the UKBA), a language proficiency score of at least IELTS 6.5 (in all elements of the test) or an equivalent UK VISA and Immigration secure English Language Test is required, if your programme falls within the faculty of Engineering and Science a language proficiency score of at least IELTS 6.5 overall with a minimum of 6.0 in all elements of the test or an equivalent UK VISA and Immigration secure English Language Test is required. Unless the degree above was taught in English and obtained in a majority English speaking country, e.g. UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, etc, as recognised by the UKBA. (E)

Experience & Skills:
• Previous experience of undertaking research (e.g. undergraduate or taught master’s dissertation) (E)
• Prior knowledge of Stata (E)
• Prior research using the Synthetic Control Method (D)

Personal Attributes:
• Understands the fundamental differences between a taught degree and a research degree in terms of approach and personal discipline/motivation (E)
• Able to, under guidance, complete independent work successfully (E)

Other Requirements:
• This scholarship may require Academic Technology Approval Scheme approval for the successful candidate if from outside of the EU/EEA (E)
• The scholarship must commence before July 2023 (E)

Making an application:

Please read this information before making an application. Information on the application process is available at: https://www.gre.ac.uk/research/study/apply/application-process. Applications need to be made online via this link.  No other form of application will be considered.

 All applications must include the following information.  Applications not containing these documents will not be considered.

• Scholarship Reference Number (Ref: GBS-PhD-2223-01)– included in the personal statement section together with your personal statement as to why you are applying
• a CV including 2 referees *
• academic qualification certificates/transcripts and IELTs/English Language certificate if you are an international applicant or if English is not your first language or you are from a country where English is not the majority spoken language as defined by the UK Border Agency *

*upload to the qualification section of the application form. Attachments must be a PDF format.

 Before submitting your application, you are encouraged to liaise with the Lead Supervisor on the details above. Submitting a detailed research proposal along with your application will potentially increase the chance of being shortlisted.

 Posts are open until 30 April but may be filled earlier if a suitable candidate is found.