Free Online Seminar: The Political Economy of Natural Resources and Rentier States

Online Seminar Tuesdays 9:00AM – 11:00AM EDT beginning October 13 for 10 weeks.

Cosponsored by: The New University in Exile Consortium & Off-University

Seminar Description:

Natural resources can generate vast sums, in many cases, sums larger than official development assistance or other forms of national income. If managed prudently, natural resource wealth can have a substantial impact on a country’s sustainable development efforts, and in addition to the capital flows, natural resources can have many other direct and indirect benefits for an economy. But those benefits are far from automatic and in fact, in many cases natural resource wealth has not transformed into long term sustainable development.

This seminar will outline the various complex and interrelated aspects of natural resource governance, including: understanding the governance and industry fundamentals; developing and implementing robust and transparent legal frameworks; designing fiscal regimes to capture a fair share of the revenues; managing environmental risks; engaging with communities; leveraging investments for infrastructure and business linkages; and managing revenues for economic diversification and development, among others.

Seminar Leaders:

Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu is the 2019/2020 postdoctoral visiting scholar at the Center for European Studies at Rutgers University. He is a world-renowned political economist from Azerbaijan. He is a senior policy analyst for social and economic studies at Azerbaijan’s Economic Research Center, a Baku-based NGO that promotes economic development and good governance.

Dr. Leila Alieva is an affiliate of the Russian and East European Studies at the Oxford School for Global and Area Studies and a tutor at the Oxford University Department for Continued Education. Prior to that she was a member of the Senior Common Room of the St. Antony’s College of the University of Oxford.