This article questions the current trend which supposes that the rich natural resource endowment of a region leads to the prosperity or weel-being of its inhabitants. It discusses classic statements by Prebisch and Hirschman as well as more contemporary ones by Bunker and Freudenburg. These authors stress the idea that regions and activities intensive in natural resources have serious developmental handicaps when compared to regions and activities intensive in industrial transformation of natural resources or in technology and information.
natural resources; development; extractive economies; transformative industries; added value; raw products
