IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/37982.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The new kid in the forest: the impact of China's resource demand on Gabon's tropical timber value chain

Author

Listed:
  • Terheggen, Anne

Abstract

This dissertation is anchored in the disruptive impact of China’s resource-based economic expansion over the last two decades. Whilst the country’s economic growth follows traditional patterns of development, the size of China’s population challenges the small-country assumption inherent in many macroeconomic trade models. The recent commodity boom and the seeming reversal of commodity exporting countries’ terms of trade are a result of China’s non-marginal impact of consumption. This thesis uses examples from the tropical timber industry in general and primary data from Gabon in particular to examine the impact of Chinese consumption of tropical timber forest products on a producer industry in the South. The global value chain framework is used as a method to study the likely changes in the organisation of production and trade. The research examines the possible re-direction of tropical timber trade flows away from the OECD towards China. It can be expected that the access to the Chinese market is defined over different standards, as buying decisions in traditional consumer countries vary from Chinese ones based on their stages of industrialisation and per capita incomes. The analysis also investigates whether the shift in markets leads to changes in the division of labour, the income distribution and the usage of domestic factors of production in Gabon. Additionally, the growing presence of Chinese producers in Southern resource industries has the potential to accentuate structural changes in the organisation of production, because Chinese actors’ activities are said to be concentrated in the extractive rather than the processing stages of production, often in disregard of socio-environmental consequences. Research results obtained in this dissertation, with respect to possible changes in the organisation of production and trade, plus knowledge about the impact of China’s significant consumption of natural resources on global commodity prices and the terms of trade movement, enable us to draw conclusions with respect to theoretical discussions about the role of natural resources in economic development, the implications for industrial and economic policy formulation, and the global value chain framework as a research method.

Suggested Citation

  • Terheggen, Anne, 2010. "The new kid in the forest: the impact of China's resource demand on Gabon's tropical timber value chain," MPRA Paper 37982, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:37982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/37982/1/MPRA_paper_37982.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sedjo, Roger & Goetzel, Alberto, 1997. "Models Needed to Assist in the Development of a National Fiber Supply Strategy for the 21st Century: Report of a Workshop," RFF Working Paper Series dp-97-22, Resources for the Future.
    2. Mesquita Moreira, Mauricio, 2007. "Fear of China: Is There a Future for Manufacturing in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 355-376, March.
    3. Lewis, W Arthur, 1980. "The Slowing Down of the Engine of Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 555-564, September.
    4. Robert C. Feenstra, 1998. "Integration of Trade and Disintegration of Production in the Global Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 31-50, Fall.
    5. Vincent, Jeffrey R., 2004. "Detecting illegal trade practices by analyzing discrepancies in forest products trade statistics : An application to Europe, with a focus on Romania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3261, The World Bank.
    6. Dehn,Jan, 2000. "Commodity price uncertainty in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2426, The World Bank.
    7. Venables, Anthony J. & Maloney, William & Kokko, Ari & Bravo Ortega, Claudio & Lederman, Daniel & Rigobón, Roberto & De Gregorio, José & Czelusta, Jesse & Jayasuriya, Shamila A. & Blomström, Magnus & , 2007. "Natural Resources: Neither Curse nor Destiny," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 350, December.
    8. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-1250.
    9. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew M. Warner, 1995. "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 5398, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Nancy Birdsall, 2010. "The Washington Consensus: Assessing a Damaged Brand - Working Paper 213," Working Papers 213, Center for Global Development.
    11. Joseph E. Stiglitz & Shahid Yusuf, 2001. "Rethinking the East Asian Miracle," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13969.
    12. Emmanuel Hache, 2008. "Commodities Markets : New paradigm or new fashion ?," Working Papers hal-02469449, HAL.
    13. W. W. Rostow, 1959. "The Stages Of Economic Growth," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, August.
    14. Hirschman,Albert O., 1981. "Essays in Trespassing," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521282437, January.
    15. Kaplinsky, Raphael, 2010. "The role of standards in global value chains," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5396, The World Bank.
    16. World Bank, 2004. "Sustaining Forests : A Development Strategy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14951.
    17. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    18. Yiping Zhu, 2010. "Trade, capital flows and external balance: is China unique in two hundred years of globalisation?," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 1-22.
    19. E. B. Barbier & J. C. Burgess, 2001. "The Economics of Tropical Deforestation," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 413-433, July.
    20. Midgley, Stephen, 2005. "Meeting China’s Demands for Imported Wood and Wood Fibre," 2005: Forests, Wood and Livelihoods: Finding a Future for All, 16 August 2005 124409, Crawford Fund.
    21. Dani Rodrik, 2006. "Goodbye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion? A Review of the World Bank's Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 44(4), pages 973-987, December.
    22. Adrian Wood & Jörg Mayer, 2011. "Has China de-industrialised other developing countries?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(2), pages 325-350, June.
    23. Paul E. Waggoner & Jesse H. Ausubel, 2001. "How Much Will Feeding More and Wealthier People Encroach on Forests?," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(2), pages 239-257, June.
    24. Mesquita Moreira, Mauricio, 2007. "Fear of China: Is There a Future for Manufacturing in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 355-376, March.
    25. Sylvie Démurger & Hou Yuanzhao & Yang Weiyong, 2007. "Forest management policies and resource balance in China: an assessment of the current situation," Post-Print halshs-00144898, HAL.
    26. Levine, Ross & Renelt, David, 1992. "A Sensitivity Analysis of Cross-Country Growth Regressions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 942-963, September.
    27. Habiyaremye, Alexis & Ziesemer, Thomas, 2006. "Absorptive Capacity and Export Diversification in Sub-Saharan African Countries," MERIT Working Papers 2006-030, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    28. Sedjo, Roger & Lyon, Kenneth, 1996. "Timber Supply Model 96: A Global Timber Supply Model with a Pulpwood Component," RFF Working Paper Series dp-96-15, Resources for the Future.
    29. Davis, Graham A., 1995. "Learning to love the Dutch disease: Evidence from the mineral economies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(10), pages 1765-1779, October.
    30. Bhattarai, Madhusudan & Hammig, Michael, 2001. "Institutions and the Environmental Kuznets Curve for Deforestation: A Crosscountry Analysis for Latin America, Africa and Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 995-1010, June.
    31. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1997. "I Just Ran Two Million Regressions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 178-183, May.
    32. David Dollar & Aart Kraay, 2004. "Trade, Growth, and Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(493), pages 22-49, February.
    33. Stephanie Barrientos & Andrienetta Kritzinger, 2004. "Squaring the circle: global production and the informalization of work in South African fruit exports," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1), pages 81-92.
    34. Allan G. B. Fisher, 1939. "Production, Primary, Secondary And Tertiary," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 15(1), pages 24-38, June.
    35. David de Ferranti & Guillermo E. Perry & Daniel Lederman & William E. Maloney, 2002. "From Natural Resources to the Knowledge Economy : Trade and Job Quality," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14040.
    36. Adelman, Irma, 1999. "Fallacies In Development Theory And Their Implications For Policy," CUDARE Working Papers 25005, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    37. Ocampo, José Antonio & Parra, María Angela, 2003. "The terms of trade for commodities in the twentieth century," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    38. H. Myint, 1954. "The Gains from International Trade and the Backward Countries," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 22(2), pages 129-142.
    39. Prebisch, Raúl, 1950. "The economic development of Latin America and its principal problems," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 29973, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    40. Zafar, Ali, 2004. "What happens when a country does not adjust to terms of trade shocks? the case of oil-rich Gabon," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3403, The World Bank.
    41. Barrientos, Stephanie & Dolan, Catherine & Tallontire, Anne, 2003. "A Gendered Value Chain Approach to Codes of Conduct in African Horticulture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1511-1526, September.
    42. David Pearce & Corin Pearce & Charles Palmer (ed.), 2002. "Valuing the Environment in Developing Countries," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1838.
    43. Sedjo, Roger A. & Goetzl, Alberto, 1997. "Models Needed to Assist in the Development of a National Fiber Supply Strategy for the 21st Century: Report of a Workshop," Discussion Papers 10486, Resources for the Future.
    44. repec:bla:econom:v:44:y:1977:i:175:p:231-48 is not listed on IDEAS
    45. Findlay, Ronald & Lundahl, Mats, "undated". "Resource-Led Growth – A Long-Term Perspective The Relevance of the 1870-1914 Experience for Today's Developing Economies," WIDER Working Papers 295488, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    46. Sedjo, Roger A., 1997. "The Forest Sector: Important Innovations," Discussion Papers 10667, Resources for the Future.
    47. Angelsen, Arild & Kaimowitz, David, 1999. "Rethinking the Causes of Deforestation: Lessons from Economic Models," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 14(1), pages 73-98, February.
    48. Reinhardt, Nola, 2000. "Back to Basics in Malaysia and Thailand: The Role of Resource-Based Exports in Their Export-Led Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 57-77, January.
    49. Thomas Gunton, 2003. "Natural Resources and Regional Development: An Assessment of Dependency and Comparative Advantage Paradigms," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 79(1), pages 67-94, January.
    50. A S Mather, 2001. "Forests of Consumption: Postproductivism, Postmaterialism, and the Postindustrial Forest," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 19(2), pages 249-268, April.
    51. Nancy Birdsall & Amar Hamoudi, 2002. "Commodity Dependence, Trade, and Growth: When "Openness" is Not Enough," Working Papers 7, Center for Global Development.
    52. Li, Ruhong & Buongiorno, J. & Turner, J.A. & Zhu, S. & Prestemon, J., 2008. "Long-term effects of eliminating illegal logging on the world forest industries, trade, and inventory," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(7-8), pages 480-490, October.
    53. William F. Maloney & Daniel Lederman, 2008. "In search of the Missing Resource Curse," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2008), pages 1-57, August.
    54. Cohen, Benjamin, 1968. "The Less Developed Countries' Exports of Primary Products," Center for International Affairs (CIA) Archive 296654, Harvard University, Center for International Affairs.
    55. repec:imf:imfops:2004/006 is not listed on IDEAS
    56. Kuznets, Simon, 1973. "Modern Economic Growth: Findings and Reflections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(3), pages 247-258, June.
    57. Catherine Dolan & John Humphrey, 2004. "Changing Governance Patterns in the Trade in Fresh Vegetables between Africa and the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(3), pages 491-509, March.
    58. Syrquin, Moshe & Chenery, Hollis, 1989. "Three decades of industrialization," MPRA Paper 32771, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    59. Jan Dehn, 2000. "Commodity Price Uncertainty in Developing Countries," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2000-12, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    60. Lars H. Gulbrandsen, 2004. "Overlapping Public and Private Governance: Can Forest Certification Fill the Gaps in the Global Forest Regime?," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 4(2), pages 75-99, May.
    61. repec:bla:devpol:v:21:y:2003:i:5-6:p:615-625 is not listed on IDEAS
    62. Cropper, Maureen & Griffiths, Charles, 1994. "The Interaction of Population Growth and Environmental Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 250-254, May.
    63. Jan Dehn, 2000. "Commodity price uncertainty in developing countries," CSAE Working Paper Series 2000-12, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    64. Tromborg, Erik & Buongiorno, Joseph & Solberg, Birger, 2000. "The global timber market: implications of changes in economic growth, timber supply, and technological trends," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 53-69, May.
    65. Findlay, Ronald, 1996. "Modeling Global Interdependence: Centers, Peripheries, and Frontiers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 47-51, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wenbin Huang & Andreas Wilkes & Xiufang Sun & Anne Terheggen, 2013. "Who is importing forest products from Africa to China? An analysis of implications for initiatives to enhance legality and sustainability," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 339-354, April.
    2. Terheggen, Anne, 2011. "The tropical timber industry in Gabon: a forward linkages approach to industrialisation," MPRA Paper 37976, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Terheggen, Anne, 2011. "The tropical timber industry in Gabon: a forward linkages approach to industrialisation," MPRA Paper 37976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Collier, Paul & Goderis, Benedikt, 2012. "Commodity prices and growth: An empirical investigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1241-1260.
    3. Tausch, Arno, 2016. "‘Smart development’. An essay on a new political economy of the environment," MPRA Paper 70204, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Arno Tausch & Almas Heshmati, 2012. "Migration, Openness and the Global Preconditions of "Smart Development"," Bogazici Journal, Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Bogazici University, Department of Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 1-62.
    5. Blanco, Luisa & Grier, Robin, 2012. "Natural resource dependence and the accumulation of physical and human capital in Latin America," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 281-295.
    6. Birdsall, Nancy & de la Torre, Augusto & Caicedo, Felipe Valencia, 2010. "The Washington consensus : assessing a damaged brand," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5316, The World Bank.
    7. Maiju Perälä, 2003. "Persistence of Underdevelopment: Does the Type of Natural Resource Endowment Matter?," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-37, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Barbier,Edward B., 2007. "Natural Resources and Economic Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521706513.
    9. Kaznacheev, Peter, 2013. "Resource Rents and Economic Growth: Economic and institutional development in countries with a high share of income from the sale of natural resources. Analysis and recommendations based on internatio," EconStor Research Reports 121950, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    10. Lederman, Daniel & Maloney, William F., 2003. "Trade structure and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3025, The World Bank.
    11. Stijns, Jean-Philippe, 2006. "Natural resource abundance and human capital accumulation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1060-1083, June.
    12. Lebdioui, Amir, 2021. "The Multidimensional Indicator of Extractives-based Development (MINDEX): A new approach to measuring resource wealth and dependence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    13. David Roodman, 2007. "The Anarchy of Numbers: Aid, Development, and Cross-Country Empirics," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 21(2), pages 255-277, May.
    14. Jeffrey Frankel, 2012. "The Natural Resource Curse: A Survey of Diagnoses and Some Prescriptions," Growth Lab Working Papers 36, Harvard's Growth Lab.
    15. Majumder, Monoj Kumar & Raghavan, Mala & Vespignani, Joaquin, 2020. "Oil curse, economic growth and trade openness," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Musayev, Vusal, 2014. "Commodity Price Shocks, Conflict and Growth: The Role of Institutional Quality and Political Violence," MPRA Paper 59786, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Frankel, Jeffrey A., 2010. "The Natural Resource Curse: A Survey," Scholarly Articles 4454156, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    18. Christine Mutz & Thomas Ziesemer, 2008. "Simultaneous estimation of income and price elasticities of export demand, scale economies and total factor productivity growth for Brazil," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(22), pages 2921-2937.
    19. James L. Butkiewicz & Halit Yanikkaya, 2007. "Minerals, Openness, Institutions and Growth: An Empirical Analysis," Working Papers 07-04, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    20. Adrian Boos & Karin Holm‐Müller, 2012. "A theoretical overview of the relationship between the resource curse and genuine savings as an indicator for “weak” sustainability," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(3), pages 145-159, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    international trade; emerging economies; China; Gabon; global value chains; forestry; timber; resource-based growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry
    • O25 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Industrial Policy
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O24 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • L73 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Forest Products
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pra:mprapa:37982. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.