Effects of rent dependency on quality of government

This paper introduces quality of government rather than regime type as dependent variable in studies of political effects of natural resources. It consists of two parts. First, it argues for an effect of fiscal dependency of oil and gas rents on quality of government. Second, it finds significant, negative effects of oil and gas rent dependency on three empirical indicators of quality of government—low corruption, bureaucratic quality and legal impartiality—in a sample of 139 states in the period 1984–2006. The results hold for inclusion of control variables such as regime type, income, region and religion.