IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i2p374-d197258.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors

Author

Listed:
  • Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho

    (Agricultural School (ESAV), Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV), 3500-606 Viseu, Portugal
    Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies (CETRAD), University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal)

Abstract

Recent forest fire activity has resulted in several consequences across different geographic locations where both natural and socioeconomic conditions have promoted a favorable context for what has happened in recent years in a number of countries, including Portugal. As a result, it would be interesting to examine the implications of forest fire activity in terms of the socioeconomic dynamics and performance of the agroforestry sectors in the context of those verified in the Portuguese municipalities. For this purpose, data from Statistics on Portugal was considered for output and employment from the business sector related to agricultural and forestry activities, which were disaggregated at the municipality level, for the period 2008–2015. Data for the burnt area was also considered in order to assess the impact of forest fires. The data was analyzed using econometric models in panel data based on the Keynesian (Kaldor laws) and convergence (conditional approaches) theories. The results from the Keynesian approaches show that there are signs of increasing returns to scale in the Portuguese agroforestry sectors, where the burnt area increased employment growth in agricultural activities and decreased employment in the forestry sector. Forest fires seem to create favorable conditions for agricultural employment in Portuguese municipalities and the inverse occurs for forestry employment. Additionally, some signs of convergence were identified between Portuguese municipalities for agroforestry output and employment, as well for the burnt areas. However, signs of divergence (increasing returns to scale) from the Keynesian models seem to be stronger. On the other hand, the evidence of beta convergence for the burnt areas are stronger than those verified for other variables, showing that the impacts from forest fires are more transversal across the whole country (however not enough to have sigma convergence).

Suggested Citation

  • Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho, 2019. "Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:374-:d:197258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/374/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/374/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Miguel Leon-Ledesma, 1999. "Verdoorn's Law and increasing returns: an empirical analysis of the Spanish regions," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(6), pages 373-376.
    3. Moeltner, K. & Kim, M.-K. & Zhu, E. & Yang, W., 2013. "Wildfire smoke and health impacts: A closer look at fire attributes and their marginal effects," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 476-496.
    4. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 407-443.
    5. Dosi, G. & Pereira, M.C. & Roventini, A. & Virgillito, M.E., 2017. "When more flexibility yields more fragility: The microfoundations of Keynesian aggregate unemployment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 162-186.
    6. Dustin Chambers & Shatakshee Dhongde, 2017. "Are countries becoming equally unequal?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1323-1348, December.
    7. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    8. Paolo Postiglione & Maria Simona Andreano & Roberto Benedetti, 2017. "Spatial Clusters in EU Productivity Growth," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 40-60, March.
    9. Robert J. Barro & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 1991. "Convergence across States and Regions," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(1), pages 107-182.
    10. Marconi, Nelson & Reis, Cristina Fróes de Borja & Araújo, Eliane Cristina de, 2016. "Manufacturing and economic development: The actuality of Kaldor's first and second laws," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 75-89.
    11. Leon Podkaminer, 2017. "Labour Productivity Growth Slowdown: An Effect of Economic Stagnation Rather than its Cause?," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 67(supplemen), pages 67-77, August.
    12. Kim, Younoh & Knowles, Scott & Manley, James & Radoias, Vlad, 2017. "Long-run health consequences of air pollution: Evidence from Indonesia's forest fires of 1997," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 186-198.
    13. Millemaci, Emanuele & Ofria, Ferdinando, 2016. "Supply and demand-side determinants of productivity growth in Italian regions," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 138-146.
    14. Robert J. Barro, 2012. "Convergence and Modernization Revisited," NBER Working Papers 18295, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Barro, Robert J & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Convergence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(2), pages 223-251, April.
    16. Yafen He & Hualin Xie & Yuanhua Fan & Wei Wang & Xue Xie, 2016. "Forested Land Use Efficiency in China: Spatiotemporal Patterns and Influencing Factors from 1999 to 2010," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-17, August.
    17. Nazrul Islam, 1995. "Growth Empirics: A Panel Data Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 1127-1170.
    18. Andrea Majlingová & Maroš Sedliak & Róbert Smreček, 2018. "Spatial distribution of surface forest fuel in the Slovak Republic," Journal of Maps, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 368-372, November.
    19. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. ?gel de la Fuente, "undated". "Convergence Across Countries And Regions: Theory And Empirics," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 447.00, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    2. Zhang, Xiaobei & Wang, Xiaojun, 2021. "Measures of human capital and the mechanics of economic growth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Durlauf, Steven N. & Quah, Danny T., 1999. "The new empirics of economic growth," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 235-308, Elsevier.
    4. Huang, Ho-Chuan, 2005. "Diverging evidence of convergence hypothesis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 233-255, June.
    5. Capolupo, Rosa, 2009. "The New Growth Theories and Their Empirics after Twenty Years," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-72.
    6. Grafström, Jonas, 2017. "An Econometric Analysis of Divergence of Renewable Energy Invention Efforts in Europe," Ratio Working Papers 295, The Ratio Institute.
    7. Leone Leonida & Daniel Montolio, 2001. "Convergence and Inter-Distributional Dynamics among the Spanish Provinces. A Non-parametric Density Estimation Approach," Working Papers 2001/7, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    8. de la Fuente, Angel, 1997. "The empirics of growth and convergence: A selective review," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 23-73, January.
    9. Iancu, Aurel, 2007. "The Question of Economic Convergence - first part -," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 4(3), pages 5-18, September.
    10. Gregory Mankiw, 1995. "The Growth of Nations," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 275-326.
    11. Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew T. Young, 2003. "Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data," Working Papers 2003-03, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    12. Iancu, Aurel, 2009. "Real Economic Convergence," Working Papers of National Institute for Economic Research 090104, Institutul National de Cercetari Economice (INCE).
    13. Cunado, J. & Perez de Gracia, F., 2006. "Real convergence in Africa in the second-half of the 20th century," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 153-167.
    14. Celine Bonnefond, 2014. "Growth Dynamics And Conditional Convergence Among Chinese Provinces: A Panel Data Investigation Using System Gmm Estimator," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 39(4), pages 1-25, December.
    15. Emanuele Felice, 2012. "Regional convergence in Italy, 1891–2001: testing human and social capital," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 6(3), pages 267-306, October.
    16. Jones, Charles I, 1997. "Convergence Revisited," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 131-153, July.
    17. Stavros Rodokanakis, 2006. "“How Effective are the Regional Policies of Convergence in the EU?”," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3-4), pages 59-74.
    18. Bernard, Andrew B. & Durlauf, Steven N., 1996. "Interpreting tests of the convergence hypothesis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1-2), pages 161-173.
    19. Johan Lundberg, 2006. "Using spatial econometrics to analyse local growth in Sweden," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 303-316.
    20. Ben-David, Dan, 1996. "Trade and convergence among countries," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-4), pages 279-298, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:374-:d:197258. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.