Oil price shocks and developing countries : a case study of the Gulf crisis

Although the 1990 Gulf crisis caused only a short period of high oil prices, this shock had an impact on oil-importing developing economies in different ways. In the first place, the crisis had an effect on their oil import bills and balance of payments, and secondly, these effects varied between countries. To start with, the characteristics of their oil import structure (e.g. between crude and products) differed, as well as access to the world petroleum market. Also, each economy responded in a different way to the oil shock. This study will focus on a sample group of countries and elaborate on the diverse structural, institutional and policy characteristics which may largely be responsible for the non-symmetric impact of the Gulf crisis