Oil dependence and access to water and sanitation in African countries: Does the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative matter?

This paper investigates the effect of oil dependence on access to water and sanitation in 49 African countries, with data covering the period 1996–2015. Additionally, it investigates as a first attempt how the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) affects the relationship between oil dependence and access to water and sanitation. Using the two‐step system generalized method of moments, the results show that oil dependence is negatively associated with access to water and sanitation, both for the total population and urban and rural populations, respectively. Considering the difference between oil abundance and oil dependence, we find that both oil abundance and oil dependence are negatively associated with access to water and sanitation. Finally, the results illustrate that the EITI mitigates the negative effect of oil dependence on access to water and sanitation in resources rich African countries.