ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Dutch Disease and the economic assemblages that manifest as part of the curse in resource-rich economies. It dissects the macroeconomic situation in Ghana, including currency movement, de-industrialization and de-agriculturalization, spending effects, and the assemblage of economic networks and actors that condition the impact of oil on development in Ghana. This chapter builds on the political assemblage discussion in Chapter 2 to engage with macroeconomic indicators characteristic of the Dutch Disease – economic diversification, market instability or volatility, over-spending and borrowing, among other factors known to determine the extent to which resource windfalls manifest as a curse or blessing. The chapter also maps the globalized assemblage of economic structures, practices, actors, and networks of which Ghana’s hydrocarbon economy is a part. It emphasizes the need for a more complex exploration of the economic factors, both internal and external, that condition and shape the outcomes of natural resource windfalls. Our aim is to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the resource–development nexus, rather than an exclusive focus on traditional macroeconomic indicators.
