Oil, Lithium, and Vaca Muerta: 21st-Century Blessing or the Same Curse with New Packaging?

Recent economic history offers an intriguing paradox: countries like Norway, Canada, and the United Kingdom have extracted wealth from the ground without breaking down their institutions. In contrast, other nations—from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, including the Middle East—have seen how oil, gas, and lithium fueled fiscal crises, structural corruption, and long-standing authoritarian regimes.

Where is the difference? In the resource itself or in the way it is managed (social performance)?

The new article in our journal analyzes this paradox in light of the resource curse theory, but goes beyond the clichés: it explores why some countries turn oil into sovereign wealth funds, and others into electoral subsidies.

Why some governments view lithium as part of an industrial strategy, and others as short-term petty cash. And why natural wealth can be a blessing or a trap, depending on the quality of the institutions that manage it.

Drawing on authors such as Acemoglu and Robinson, and with a critical approach to the case of Argentina—Vaca Muerta, lithium, and the eternal pendulum between opportunity and risk—the article offers keys to considering whether we are facing a future of sustained development... or repeating the same script with new actors.

👉 Read the full article and discover how institutions define whether a country exports energy or its future.

🔗 [Link to the full article]