Oil, Debt and Development: OPEC in the Third World

Our original monograph, Oil, Debt and Development: OPEC in the Third World was re-issued in 2016. As there was not enough time to write a new Preface reflecting how our ideas had stood the test of time, we offer this short paper touching on some of the book’s main themes, in particular, the nature of OPEC as a cartel, the terms of trade between oil prices and developing country non-oil primary commodity export prices, the generosity of Arab foreign aid, oil prices and oil importing countries’ foreign debts, and the importance of migrant worker remittances from Arab OPEC host countries to the main sending countries.