Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Economics Research Institute Study Paper

Volume

5

Publisher

Utah State University Department of Economics

Publication Date

1997

First Page

1

Last Page

19

Abstract

This paper explores the interrelationship between poverty, risk, and deforestation by small farmers in the low-income tropics. A nonseparable household model reveals how exogenous shocks to the mean or variance of a food price distribution affect peasants' incentives to clear forest. The resulting links between food price policy, farmer behavior, and deforestation offer an innovative explanation of the vicious cycle of peasant immiserization and tropical deforestation. An intriguing, testable hypothesis also emerges: market-oriented reforms that increase the mean and variance of food prices may inadvertently stimulate deforestation in economies in which a sizable proportion of farmers are net buyers.


Download

Share

COinS