Natural resources rents and economic performance: Post-COVID-19 era for G7 countries

COVID-19 affected the economies of both developed and developing countries through multiple channels. However, the impact of this pandemic was also not so different for the developed world too. This study aims to evaluate the effect of the natural resources' rents such as oil, natural gas and energy rents on the economic performance of G7 economies from 1990 to 2020. This study uses updated panel data methods to identify the effect of COVID-19 by using novel diagnostic and unit root methods. The study found that during the COVID-19 and post pandemic, economic performance has been declined. This study found that natural resources rent, including oil and gas, help to improve the economic performance. Further, structural break for the year 2019 caused by COVID-19 also slowed down the economic performance of G7 economies. This study suggests more stabilization policies towards natural resources commodity prices and encouragement of active role from the G7 countries. This study further provides relevant policy implications in the concluding section for the selected group of countries.