ИСТИНА

Russia is blessed with vast natural resources and rich environment. But from the economic history viewpoint it’s not so obvious that such blessing could be effective. Modern economy dates back to the early modern times and the start of fi rst steps to sus- tained economic growth. As Sachs and Warner claimed: “One of the surprising features of economic life is that resource-poor economies often vastly outper- form resource-rich economies in economic growth”. So, it‘s possible to defi ne a contradiction known as the paradox of plenty that refers to the discrepancy that countries with an abundance of natural resources (mostly non-renewable ones like minerals and fuels) tend to have less economic growth than countries with fewer natural resources. Debates about economic curse caused by resources quantity started in the 1950s and 1960s, taking into account that technology is well known as the “crucial factor in how humans interact with nature”. I wonder if this interaction can be measured in terms of economic efficiency.