This paper uses a quasi-natural experiment, the recent gold boom in Burkina Faso, to document the local impact of two alternative mining techniques: artisanal and industrial mining. Artisanal mines have a bad reputation. When these mines (labor intensive and managed in common) compete for land with industrial mines (capital intensive and privatized), governments tend to favor the latter. However, more than 100 million people depend on artisanal mines for a livelihood. Our identification strategy exploits two sources of variation. The spatial variation comes from the exposure of households to different geological endowments, and the temporal variation comes from changes in the global gold price. We are the first to document the economic impact of artisanal mines. We show that a 1% increase in the gold price increases consumption by 0.12% for households near artisanal mines. Opening an industrial mine, in contrast, has no impact on local consumption.
The Gold Digger and the Machine. Evidence on the Distributive Effect of the Artisanal and Industrial Gold Rushes in Burkina Faso
Résumé
en
This paper uses a quasi-natural experiment, the recent gold boom in Burkina Faso, to document the local impact of two alternative mining techniques: artisanal and industrial mining. Artisanal mines have a bad reputation. When these mines (labor intensive and managed in common) compete for land with industrial mines (capital intensive and privatized), governments tend to favor the latter. However, more than 100 million people depend on artisanal mines for a livelihood. Our identification strategy exploits two sources of variation. The spatial variation comes from the exposure of households to different geological endowments, and the temporal variation comes from changes in the global gold price. We are the first to document the economic impact of artisanal mines. We show that a 1% increase in the gold price increases consumption by 0.12% for households near artisanal mines. Opening an industrial mine, in contrast, has no impact on local consumption.
Auteur(s)
Rémi Bazillier1
, Victoire Girard2, 3
1
CES -
Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
( 15080 )
- Maison des Sciences Économiques - 106-112 Boulevard de l'Hôpital - 75647 Paris Cedex 13
- France
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne UMR8174 ( 7550 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR8174 ( 441569 )
2
LEO -
Laboratoire d'Économie d'Orleans [FRE2014]
( 554177 )
- Université d'Orléans - UFR Droit Economie Gestion - Rue de Blois - BP 26739 - 45067 ORLÉANS Cedex 2
- France
Université d'Orléans FRE 2014 ( 300297 )
;
Université de Tours FRE 2014 ( 300298 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique FRE 2014 ( 441569 )
3
NOVA SBE -
NOVA - School of Business and Economics
( 111433 )
- Campus de Carcavelos, Rua da Holanda, 2775-405 Carcavelos.
- Portugal
Universidade Nova de Lisboa = NOVA University Lisbon ( 327246 )
Nom de la revue
Journal of Development Economics
(ISSN : 0304-3878)
Publié par Elsevier
Revue non référencée dans Sherpa-Romeo
Vulgarisation
Non
Comité de lecture
Oui
Audience
Internationale
Date de publication
2020
Date de publication électronique
2019-11-14
Volume
143
Page/Identifiant
102411
Langue du document
Anglais
Domaine(s)
Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Economies et finances
We would like to thank the Labex VOLTAIRE (ANR-10-LABX-100-01), the LEO, Univ. Orléans, CNRS, France and the Region CentreVal de Loire APR-IA MUTMOND project for their financial support. This work was also funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UID/ECO/00124/2013, UID/ECO/00124/2019 and Social Sciences DataLab, Project22209), POR Lisboa (LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-007722 and Social Sciences DataLab, Project 22209) and POR Norte (Social Sciences DataLab, Project 22209). We would also like to thank the INSD and Ministry of Mines for providing us with data.
D - Microeconomics/D.D6 - Welfare Economics/D.D6.D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
L - Industrial Organization/L.L7 - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction/L.L7.L72 - Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Other Nonrenewable Resources
O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth/O.O1 - Economic Development/O.O1.O13 - Agriculture • Natural Resources • Energy • Environment • Other Primary Products
O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth/O.O5 - Economywide Country Studies/O.O5.O55 - Africa
Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics • Environmental and Ecological Economics/Q.Q3 - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation/Q.Q3.Q32 - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development
Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics • Environmental and Ecological Economics/Q.Q3 - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation/Q.Q3.Q33 - Resource Booms
R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics/R.R1 - General Regional Economics/R.R1.R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
Rémi Bazillier, Victoire Girard. The Gold Digger and the Machine. Evidence on the Distributive Effect of the Artisanal and Industrial Gold Rushes in Burkina Faso. Journal of Development Economics, 2020, 143, pp.102411. ⟨10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.102411⟩. ⟨halshs-02348439⟩