Economy
Hold on Tom Friedman … Resource-Rich Places Can Be Smart, Too
What the New York Times columnist got wrong in his recent look at the relationship between natural resources and knowledge-based development.
Last weekend, Thomas Friedman wrote a provocative column in The New York Times about the relationship between a country's natural resources and its education level.
Friedman draws upon a major new study by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development which examines the connection between student performance in math, science, and reading (based on their Program for International Student Assessment exam scores), and natural resource-related earnings as a percent of economic output.