Oil Booms and Business Busts looks at how government policymaking shapes a puzzling phenomenon in economic development--the "curse" of natural resources. It investigates how oil and mineral wealth shapes a government's policies toward the business environment, entrepreneurs, and innovative activities. Other similar work either ignores the role of government policymaking in oil wealth, treats it as another effect of the rentier state, or dismisses it as illogical and incoherent. One might expect that in light of such abundances governments would encourage entrepreneurship and new...