Ivan Correa focused on explaining the reasons why many countries, whose economies depend primarily on natural resources, generally suffer from greater poverty. This paradox of wealth in natural resources combined with crushing poverty is known as the natural resource curse.

According to his presentation, the most oft-cited example of the natural resource curse is Nigeria, whose incredible oil wealth has failed to generate growth and has actually increased the number of people living on less than $1 per day. However, Correa highlighted that other factors such as waste from oil and corruption have been responsible for its poor long run economic performance.