The Dutch Disease and the Diversification of an Economy: Some Case Studies

Abstract

An economy that does not seek and prepare to diversify, can equally be ready to crunch. Nations of the world have been endowed with mineral resources differently, which is why they cannot live in isolation. The argument as to whether primary resources rich nations of the world do better in economic activities or not, is a matter of whether there is diversification of their economies or not. Lack of diversification of their economies results from monoculture economic conditions. A number of countries have suffered from such crises emanating from the exploitation and development of single sectors of their economies. Part one of this work is the conceptualization of economic diversification. Development of the idea of the Dutch Disease(DD) is the part two of this work. The part three is contextualizing the DD. While, cases of the DD analysis forms our part four. The conclusion is part five which is the final section of this work.