The Economics of Natural Resources in Latin America: Taxation and Regulation of the Extractive Industries(Routledge Studies in Development Economics)

Revenues from commodities are extremely important for Latin America and the Caribbean, yet there is very little literature on the structure of these industries and on the various ways in which the state obtains commodity revenues. This book aims to understand the trade-off between the degree of taxation overall, the profitability of the relevant industry and the amount of investment and subsequent production in the region, as well as the relevance of institutions in the performance of the sector.

This volume focuses on economic efficiency: where Latin America stands in terms of the current tax system for the extractive sector; how policies have changed in this regard; and how policies may be improved. The Economics of Natural Resources in Latin America is timely, since this new era of lower and volatile prices and possible reconfiguration of investment flows poses a challenge to natural resource tax systems in the world. The argument of the book will be made by a collection of papers around the issue of tax efficiency in the region and concludes with chapters on institutions and the role of transparency.

This book shows that there are varieties of experiences in resource taxation and management of revenues in Latin America that could be used to shape policy interventions in other regions. This variety is not only related to their diverse impact on welfare, but also on the policy challenges faced by the countries in the region. This volume is well suited for those who study and find interest in development economics, political economy and public finance, as well as policy

Chapter 1: The Taxation of Non-Renewable Resources in Latin America: Introduction and Overview

2. Commodity prices, the super-cycle and implications for fiscal revenues
4. Recent literature on non-renewables
6. Institutions and instruments: gaps in relation to best practices
8. What next for resource tax systems in Latin America?
10. Conclusions

Chapter 2: The effects of commodity taxation on sector performance

2. Methodological approach
4. Results
6. Concluding remarks

Chapter 3: Towards efficient taxation of minerals: The case of copper in Chile

2. The role of copper in Chilean Development
4. Mining sector today
6. Deacon’s Model
8. Data and parameters
10. Relevant Tax Regimes in the Case of Chile
12. Simulations of the scenarios
14. Concluding remarks

Chapter 4: Two sectors, two approaches: resource taxation in Peru

2. Institutional Setting
4. The Model
6. Data
8. Results
10. Introducing depreciation in Deacon’s Model
12. Concluding remarks

Chapter 5: Not all fields are created equal: The challenge of oil taxation in Venezuela

2. The Theory on Oil Production and Taxes.
4. The Venezuelan Case
6. Estimating the Effects upon Oil Exploitation of the Tax Rules
8. A brief review of the performance sector
10. Concluding Remarks

Chapter 6: Regulation and State Intervention in Non-Renewable Natural Resources: the cases of the oil and gas sectors in Argentina.

2. Some facts about the oil and gas sectors in Argentina after the 2001-2002 crisis.
4. Making sense of regulations: a dynamic political-economy agency model of state intervention in the gas market
6. Self-enforcing equilibrium characterization with no exports, positive imports and positive subsidies.
8. Rationalizing facts on Argentina’s oil and gas in the 2000’s with the model results. Some policy implications.
10. Concluding remarks

Chapter 7: Oil Sector Performance and Institutions in Latin America

2. Analytical Framework
4. Empirical Evidence
6. Concluding Remarks

Chapter 8: Transparency Matters

2. The Evolution of the EITI
4. Prior Research
6. Data and Measurement Issues
8. Empirical Model and Estimation Methodology
10. Findings
12. Case Studies: Nigeria and Peru
14. Concluding Remarks