https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307%2F3343168.pdf

Development as Freedom

Articles O ne of the primary causes of global environmental change is tropical deforestation, but the question of what factors drive deforestation remains largely unanswered (NRC 1999). Various hypotheses have produced rich arguments , but empirical evidence on the causes of deforestation continues to be largely based on cross-national statistical In some cases, these analyses are based on debatable data on rates of forest cover change (Palo 1999). The two major, mutually exclusive—and still unsatisfactory—explanations for tropical deforestation are single-factor causation and irre-ducible complexity. On the one hand, proponents of single-factor causation suggest various primary causes, such as shift-On the other hand, correlations between deforestation and multiple causative factors are many and varied , revealing no distinct pattern In addition to chronicling these attempts to identify general causes of deforestation through global-scale statistical analyses, the literature is rich in local-scale case studies investigating the causes and processes of forest cover change in specific localities. Our aim with this study is to generate from local-scale case studies a general understanding of the prox-imate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation while preserving the descriptive richness of these studies. Proximate causes are human activities or immediate actions at the local level, such as agricultural expansion, that originate from intended land use and directly impact forest cover. Underlying driving forces are fundamental social processes, such as human population dynamics or agricultural policies, that underpin the proximate causes and either operate at the local level or have an indirect impact from the national or global level. We analyzed the frequency of proximate causes and underlying driving forces of deforestation, including their interactions , as reported in 152 subnational case studies. We show that tropical deforestation is driven by identifiable regional patterns of causal factor synergies, of which the most prominent are economic factors, institutions, national policies, and remote influences (at the underlying level) driving agricultural expansion, wood extraction, and infrastructure extension (at the proximate level). Our findings reveal that prior stud-Helmut Geist (e-mail: geist@geog.ucl.ac.be) is a postdoctoral researcher (geography) in the field of human drivers of global environmental change and executive director of the Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Eric Lambin is a professor of geography with research interests in remote sensing and human ecology applied to studies of deforestation, desertification, and bio-mass burning in tropical regions. He is the chair of the IGBP and IHDP …

https://bioone.org/journalArticle/Download?fullDOI=10.1641%2f0006-3568(2002)052%5b0143%3aPCAUDF%5d2.0.CO%3b2

Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation.

Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation

Why do growth rates differ? This paper surveys the recent empirical literature on economic growth, starting with a discussion of stylized facts, data problems, and statistical methods. Six research questions are emphasized, drawing on growth and convergence research. In answering these questions, the paper argues that efficiency has grown at different rates across countries, casting doubt on neoclassical models in which technology is a public good. The latter half of the paper rounds up a variety of findings before providing answers to all six questions, including a short summary of how differences in growth rates arise.

The New Growth Evidence

Will the world be able to sustain economic growth indefinitely without running into resource constraints or despoiling the environment beyond repair? What is the relationship between steadily increasing incomes and environmental quality? This paper builds on the author's earlier work (1993), in which he argued that the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality – whether inverse or direct -- is not fixed along a country's development path. Indeed, he hypothesized, it may change as a country reaches a level of income at which people can demand and afford a more efficient infrastructure and a cleaner environment. This implied inverted-U relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth came to be known as the "Environmental Kuznets Curve," by analogy with the income-inequality relationship postulated by Kuznets (1965, 1966). The objective of this paper is to critically review, synthesize and interpret the literature on the relationship between economic growth and environment. This literature has followed two distinct but related strands of research: an empirical strand of ad hoc specifications and estimations of a reduced form equation, relating an environmental impact indicator to income per capita; and a theoretical strand of macroeconomic models of interaction between environmental degradation and economic growth, including optimal growth, endogenous growth and overlapping generations models. The author concludes that the macroeconomic models generally support the empirical findings of the Environmental Kuznets Curve literature. He suggests further empirical investigation related to the assumption of additive separability, as well as development of additional macroeconomic models that allow for a more realistic role for government.

Economic Growth and the Environment

The empirical literature relating crosssectional variations of per capita public spending to various economic, political and demographic factors is both lengthy and varied.' Differences in expenditures over political units are explained by differences in per capita incomes, urbanization, area, population density, taxable capacity, tax rates, absolute population size, grantsin-aid from higher levels of government, and school-aged population rates. With few exceptions,2 the models employed in these studies are ad hoc constructions with little basis in the theory of choice.3 Our aims are to posit a model of public spending derived from the received theory of collective decision making4 and to test the significance of certain variables assumed by this simple theory to be important determinants of the levels of state and local government expenditures.

The Demand for the Services of Non-Federal Governments

http://www.feem-web.it/ess/ess07/files/bulte4_ln.pdf

Resource intensity, institutions, and development

The effect of insecure ownership on ordinary investment and natural resource use is examined. Insecure ownership is postulated to depend on the type of government regime in power and the prevalence of political violence or instability. The political determinants of economy-wide investment are estimated from cross-country data, and the results are used to form an index of ownership security. When introduced into empirical models of natural resource use, this index has a significant and quantitatively important effect on the use of forests and petroleum. Contrary to conventional wisdom, ownership risk slows resource use in some circumstances.

/pdf/ownership-risk-investment-and-the-use-of-natural-resources-2u7ynhb0zm.pdf

Ownership Risk, Investment, and the Use of Natural Resources

Relationships between deforestation and population pressure, income growth, and insecure property rights are examined with data from 120 countries. Insecure property rights are hypothesized to arise from two sources: government instability or inability to enforce ownership and an absence of government accountability. The former source is captured by measures of general lawlessness such as guerrilla warfare, revolution, and frequent constitutional change. The latter is proxied by variables indicating the type of government executive, frequency of political purges, and the existence of an elected legislature. General support is indicated for the property rights hypothesis and for the effects of population growth.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3146638

Robert T. Deacon

Papers

The Demand for the Services of Non-Federal Governments

Resource intensity, institutions, and development

Ownership Risk, Investment, and the Use of Natural Resources

Deforestation and the Rule of Law in a Cross-Section of Countries

Private Preference for Collective Goods Revealed Through Voting on Referenda