Economic growth is one of the most important indicators of economic performance of governments. The OPEC member countries which have abundant oil resources endeavor to use it for improving of their economic growth. Therefore, evaluation of how the impact of oil revenues on economic growth is essential. The present study examines the relationship between oil revenues and economic growth in selected OPEC member countries, including Algeria, Ecuador, Iran, Kuwait, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arabic Emirates and Venezuela, during the period of 1981- 2010 based on an error components model using panel data. The main hypothesis of this research is that oil revenues caused economic growth. The results of this research ultimately reject the hypothesis above for all countries and also show that the effect of oil revenues is not same in different countries. In the case of Iran and Saudi Arabia, more growth in oil revenues even causes a decrease in economic growth that this is a confirmation upon theory of natural resource curse.
Mojaverian M, Razaghi K. The Relationship between Oil Revenues and Economic Growth in Iran and Selected OPEC Member Countries (1981-2010). IJE 2013; 16 (1) URL: http://necjournals.ir/article-1-463-en.html