Countries with a overwhelmingly valuable commodity become inefficient

The Saudi Resource Curse Is Worse Than Ever

The big question for oil-rich Gulf States is whether they can avoid the resource curse.

This is a phenomenon where countries with a overwhelmingly valuable commodity become inefficient, as other areas of the economy fail to develop and the population comes to rely on government handouts.

Well, it looks like Saudi Arabia is succumbing.

The share of Saudi workers employed by the government increased to 90 percent in 2010, up from 83 percent in 2000, according to a profile in The Economist

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