Natural resources and the environment: implications for economic development and international relations

This Thesis explores four distinct questions relating natural and environmental resources, with international relations. To address these questions we take into perspective that: i. natural resources wealth can bring benefits in terms of economic growth and attraction of investments in sectors related to natural resources; and ii. the effect of international flows of direct investment and trade on pollution depend on the development level of the countries engaged in these relations. Chapter two provides an econometric analysis of the determinants of the weight of resource-based sectors relative to natural resources sectors in Latin America. Chapter three analyzes the impact of natural resource wealth and dependency on M&As. Chapter four studies the impact of M&As and Multilateral Agreements on Carbon Dioxide emissions. In Chapter five we investigate the links between firm heterogeneity, intra-industry trade, and the environment. Overall our evidence points to a poor linkage between M&As and natural resources, in the sense that resource dependency has a negative effect on M&As; and M&As do not contribute to the relative enlargement of resource based sectors. Additionally, we find that linkages between M&As and pollution as well as between trade and pollution are significant and dependent on the development level of the countries involved. Altogether, our findings show that there is more opportunity in international relations to tackle pollution issues than to revert a resource dependent specialization pattern.