Articolo
Versione Digitale
Download | Copia/incolla | Stampa
U-Din, Salah | Sadiq, Usman

Crude oil prices : a curse or a blessing for small businesses in Alberta?

2022 - Franco Angeli

P. 33-50

  • Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurship, and crude oil are important contributors to the economic growth of several countries. Crude oil revenue facilitated the development of other economic sectors including SMEs in many countries and became a blessing for economic stability. However, in some countries or regions, it attracted most of the labour, capital, and government support at the cost of other economic sectors and became a curse.
  • This study investigates the relationship between crude oil prices and small business entrepreneurship activities in the province of Alberta. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) models, along with some other statistical tools, are used to analyze the data for the period 1988-2018. Our findings reveal a positive relationship between crude oil prices and the number of small businesses in Alberta and Canada, which is consistent with the natural resources blessing hypothesis.
  • However, some labour-intensive and low-wage small business sectors were found to be negatively associated with crude oil prices. Moreover, the population growth and market interest rate hampered small business entrepreneurial activities, while GDP growth promoted them. Some implications are provided at the end of the study to diversify the economy of Alberta through promoting small business entrepreneurial activities. [Publisher's text]

Fa parte di

Economics and Policy of Energy and Environment : 1, 2022