We investigate the link between resource revenues volatility and institutions. We build a stochastic differential game with two players (conservatives vs. liberals) lobbying for changing the institutions in their preferred directions. First, uncertainty surrounds the dynamics of institutions and the resource revenues. Second, the lobbying power is asymmetric, the conservatives’ power being increasing with resource revenues. We show the existence of a unique equilibrium in the set of affine strategies. We then examine to which extent uncertainty leads to more liberal institutions in the long run, compared to the deterministic case. We finally explore the institutional impact of volatility using a database covering 91 countries over the period 1973–2005. Focusing on financial liberalization, we find that as oil revenue volatility increases, liberalization goes down. This result is robust to different specifications and sample distinctions.

Does drawing economic benefit from nature impinge on conservation? This has been a subject of controversy in the literature. The article presents a management method to overcome this possible dilemma, and reconcile conservation biology with economics. It is based on recent advances in the mathematical theory of dynamic systems under viability constraints. In the case of a one-locus two-allele plant coexisting with a one-locus two-allele parasite, the method provides a rule for deciding when and to what extent the resistant or the susceptible strain should be cultivated, in the uncertain time-varying presence of the parasite. This is useful for preventing the fixation of the susceptible allele - and thereby limiting the plant's vulnerability in the medium term, should the parasite reappear. The method thus provides an aid to decision for economic and ecology-friendly profitability.

We provide an optimal growth spatio-temporal setting with capital accumulation and diffusion across space to study the link between economic growth triggered by capital spatio-temporal dynamics and agglomeration across space. The technology is AK, K being broad capital. The social welfare function is Benthamite. In sharp contrast to the related literature, which considers homogeneous space, we derive optimal location outcomes for any given space distributions for technology and population. Both the transitional spatio-temporal dynamics and the asymptotic spatial distributions are computed in closed form. Concerning the latter, we find, among other results, that: (i) due to inequality aversion, the consumption per capital distribution is much flatter than the distribution of capital per capita; (ii) endogenous spillovers inherent in capital spatio-temporal dynamics occur as capital distribution is much less concentrated than the (pre-specified) technological distribution; (iii) the distance to the center (or to the core) is an essential determinant of the shapes of the asymptotic distributions, that is relative location matters.

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