This paper presents a comparative analysis of resource-rich Asian transition economies. For Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan the ability to earn revenue from cotton exports permitted avoidance of reform. Oil in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan was associated with large-scale corruption, but with soaring revenues in the 2000s their institutions evolved and to some extent improved. Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia illustrate the challenge facing a small economy with a large potential mineral resource, with the former suffering from competition for rents among the elite and the latter from lost opportunities. Overall the countries illustrate that a resource curse is not inevitable among transition economies, but a series of hurdles need to be surmounted to benefit from resource abundance. Neither the similar initial institutions nor those created in the 1990s are immutable.

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