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Rethinking the Causes of Deforestation: Lessons from Economic Models

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Author Info
Angelsen, Arild
Kaimowitz, David
Abstract

This article, which synthesizes the results of more than 140 economic models analyzing the causes of tropical deforestation, raises significant doubts about many conventional hypotheses in the debate about deforestation. More roads, higher agricultural prices, lower wages, and a shortage of off-farm employment generally lead to more deforestation. How technical change, agricultural input prices, household income levels, and tenure security affect deforestation -- if at all -- is unknown. The role of macroeconomic factors such as debt is also ambiguous. This review, however, finds that policy reforms included in current economic liberalization and adjustment efforts may increase the pressure on forests. Although the boom in deforestation modeling has yielded new insights, weak methodology and poor-quality data make the results of many models questionable. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.

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Article provided by Oxford University Press in its journal World Bank Research Observer.

Volume (Year): 14 (1999)
Issue (Month): 1 (February)
Pages: 73-98
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:14:y:1999:i:1:p:73-98

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  1. R. Thiele, 1995. "Conserving Tropical Rain Forests In Indonesia: A Quantitative Assessment Of Alternative Policies," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(2), pages 187-200. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Mendelsohn, Robert, 1994. "Property Rights and Tropical Deforestation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(0), pages 750-56, Supplemen. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Jones, Donald W. & O'Neill, Robert V., 1994. "Development policies, rural land use, and tropical deforestation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 753-771, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Deininger, Klaus W & Minten, Bart, 1999. "Poverty, Policies, and Deforestation: The Case of Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(2), pages 313-44, January.
  5. Cropper, Maureen & Griffiths, Charles, 1994. "The Interaction of Population Growth and Environmental Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 250-54, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Pichon, Francisco J, 1997. "Colonist Land-Allocation Decisions, Land Use, and Deforestation in the Ecuadorian Amazon Frontier," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(4), pages 707-44, July.
  7. Rock, Michael T., 1996. "The stork, the plow, rural social structure and tropical deforestation in poor countries?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 113-131, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Ian A. COXHEAD & Gerald SHIVELY, 1995. "Measuring The Environmental Impacts Of Economic Change: The Case Of Land Degradation In Philippine Agriculture," Staff Papers 384, University of Wisconsin Madison, AAE. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Manfred Wiebelt, 1995. "Stopping deforestation in the Amazon: Trade-off between ecological and economic targets?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 542-568, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Barbier, Edward B. & Burgess, Joanne C., 1996. "Economic analysis of deforestation in Mexico," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(02), pages 203-239, May. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Cropper, Maureen & Griffiths, Charles & Mani, Muthukumara, 1997. "Roads, population pressures, and deforestation in Thailand, 1976-89," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1726, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  12. repec:ilo:ilaoep:238 is not listed on IDEAS
  13. Binswanger, Hans & Yang, Maw-Cheng & Bowers, Alan & Mundlak, Yair, 1987. "On the determinants of cross-country aggregate agricultural supply," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-2), pages 111-131. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Bluffstone Randall A., 1995. "The Effect of Labor Market Performance on Deforestation in Developing Countries under Open Access: An Example from Rural Nepal," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 42-63, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Elnagheeb, Abdelmoneim H. & Bromley, Daniel W., 1994. "Extensification of agriculture and deforestation: Empirical evidence from Sudan," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 193-200, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Southgate, Douglas & Sierra, Rodrigo & Brown, Lawrence, 1991. "The causes of tropical deforestation in Ecuador: A statistical analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 19(9), pages 1145-1151, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Deacon, R.T., 1993. "Deforestation and the Rule of Law in a Cross Section of Countries," University of California at Santa Barbara, Economics Working Paper Series 11-93, Department of Economics, UC Santa Barbara.
  18. Stern, David I. & Common, Michael S. & Barbier, Edward B., 1996. "Economic growth and environmental degradation: The environmental Kuznets curve and sustainable development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 1151-1160, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Holden, Stein T., 1993. "Peasant household modelling: Farming systems evolution and sustainability in northern Zambia," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 241-267, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Hasan, Lubna, 2008. "An Anatomy of State Failures in The Forest Management in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 6513, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Angelsen, Arild, 2007. "Forest cover change in space and time : combining the von Thunen and forest transition theories," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4117, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. Laetitia Duval & François-Charles Wolff, 2009. "L'effet des transferts migratoires sur la déforestation dans les pays en développement," Working Papers hal-00421222_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
  4. de Pinto, Alessandro & Nelson, Gerald C., 2004. "A Dynamic Model Of Land Use Change With Spatially Explicit Data," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20314, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association). [Downloadable!]
  5. Philippe Delacote, 2008. "The Safety-net Use of Non Timber Forest Products," Working Papers - Cahiers du LEF 2008-04, Laboratoire d'Economie Forestiere, AgroParisTech-INRA. [Downloadable!]
  6. Gatti, J.R.J. & Goeschl, T. & Groom, B. & Timothy Swanson, 2004. "The Biodiversity Bargaining Problem," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0447, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
  7. Suzi Kerr & Alexander Pfaff & Romina Cavatassi & Benjamin Davis & Leslie Lipper & Arturo Sanchez & Jason Timmins, 2004. "Effects of Poverty on Deforestation: Distinguishing behaviour from location," Working Papers 04-19, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA). [Downloadable!]
  8. Jean-Louis ARCAND & Sylviane GUILLAUMONT JEANNENEY & Patrick GUILLAUMONT, 2003. "Deforestation and the Real Exchange Rate," Working Papers 200332, CERDI. [Downloadable!]
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