  This paper investigates the impacts of major natural resource discoveries
since 1960 on life expectancy in the nations that they were resource poor prior
to the discoveries. Previous literature explains the relation between nations
wealth and life expectancy, but it has been silent about the impacts of
resource discoveries on life expectancy. We attempt to fill this gap in this
study. An important advantage of this study is that as the previous researchers
argued resource discovery could be an exogenous variable. We use longitudinal
data from 1960 to 2014 and we apply three modern empirical methods including
Difference-in-Differences, Event studies, and Synthetic Control approach, to
investigate the main question of the research which is 'how resource
discoveries affect life expectancy?'. The findings show that resource
discoveries in Ecuador, Yemen, Oman, and Equatorial Guinea have positive and
significant impacts on life expectancy, but the effects for the European
countries are mostly negative.
