forest incomes and rural livelihoods in chiradzulu district malawi abstract this paper examines forest income among rural dwellers in one of malawi s most densely populated districts chiradzulu 160 households were interviewed in two sites only 20 km apart purposely selected on the basis of access to a forest reserve people are extremely poor with 97 having incomes of less than 1 usd day forest income constitutes around 15 of total income only non farm income 47 and agriculture 28 rank higher the poorest segment depends more on forest income than the least poor group but the medium income group exhibits the highest dependence fuelwood constitutes the major source of such income followed by fodder the incomes mainly support current consumption people with better access to the forest reserve have higher total income forest income and relative forest income as revealed through a gini coefficient analysis forest resources have an important income equalizing effect across rural households a particular group of resource poor farmers 8 1 of sample with little access to agricultural land and a high representation of female heads derives an average of 65 of their income from the forest an important policy lesson is that restricting people s access to forest resources can have substantial effects on household livelihoods and welfare and would serve to increase income inequalities in the area livelihood researchers should now recognize the substantial income from forest resources

corruption trade and resource conversion abstract recent evidence suggests that special interest groups significantly affect tropical deforestation through lobbying we develop an open economy model in which resource conversion is determined by a self interested government that is susceptible to the influences of the political contributions it receives from the profit maximizing economic agent responsible for land conversion we investigate the effects of lobbying on the cumulative level of resource conversion and examine how trade policy influences the distortions created by political corruption we derive testable predictions that are analyzed through a panel analysis of cumulative agricultural land expansion over 1960 99 for low and middle income tropical countries our findings suggest that increased corruption and resource dependency directly promote land conversion whereas rising terms of trade reduce conversion

growth deforestation and the efficiency of the redd mechanism this paper assesses the long term impacts of an international transfer called the reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation redd mechanism which aims at preserving tropical forests of the recipient economy this two sector economy faces a dilemma between economic growth and deforestation the rural sector can substitute reproducible capital for agricultural land whereas the manufacturing sector only requires capital the model shows that the redd mechanism has a non monotonic effect on steady state welfares for low transfer schemes the agricultural output increases with the transfer even though less land is under cultivation for high transfer schemes the increase in the transfer may not offset the decrease in the agricultural output the open loop symmetric nash equilibrium in a dynamic deforestation game predicts that redistributing the transfer among a finite number of producers is less efficient in reducing deforestation than in the social optimum

the economics of tropical deforestation and land use an introduction to the special issue this paper both introduces the special issue on the economics of tropical deforestation and land use and conducts a synthesis crosscountry analysis of tropical agricultural land expansion agricultural development is the main factor determining land expansion but institutional factors have an important influence income effects vary from region to region and do not always display an ekc relationship the case studies comprising this special issue provide further case study insights into tropical deforestation and land use through spatial analysis of locational factors cge modeling of policy scenarios assessing external market impacts on land clearing and modelling state interventions and taxation

a tale of two communities explaining deforestation in mexico summary deforestation policies in mexico need to recognize heterogeneity in community s management schemes in communities that extract wood from the forest for profit forestry projects generate funds whose investment in public goods increases the value of standing forest to those not receiving direct dividends from the projects increases in such investment help decrease deforestation in communities with other livelihoods deforestation decreases with the community s ability to form a coalition that cooperates in reducing forest clearing this is easier in smaller communities with more experienced leaders analysis using data collected in 2002 combined with satellite imagery verifies the models predictions

rent seeking behaviour and its economic costs in urban land transactions in accra ghana the existing body of knowledge attributes to informal land transactions in sub saharan african cities observed problems in city neighbourhoods substantial resources often backed by donor agencies are therefore being spent in revamping bureaux and governmental bodies in a bid to solve the problems this paper examines the economic impacts of this aspect of market intervention employing insights from rent seeking theory it estimates costs brought to bear on agents by government agencies involvement in the urban land market of accra ghana the sum of these wasteful diversions of resources is found to explain a great deal of the haphazard developments that have come to characterise many neighbourhoods in the city market led regulation emerges as the needed focus of future land policy and management strategy towards this the paper calls for the removal of existing unwarranted market interventions and the reorganisation of responsible bureaux in ways that would induce them to operate efficiently

on the measurement of rent seeking and its social opportunity cost utilizing 4 digit industry data by county we compare the allocation of resources across industries in state capital areas with noncapital areas we are able to identify which industries are expanded and contracted relative to noncapital areas our results provide the first direct evidence and measurement of the forgone productive activity resulting from resources being reallocated toward rent seeking and interest group activity our data also allow us to measure total rent seeking and also to isolate the extent of indirect and in kind rent seeking which can account for part of the tullock paradox

rural income and poverty in a time of radical change in malawi abstract malawi is one of the poorest countries in africa there is widespread though not universal agreement about the shape of poverty in the country and the policy challenge this sets agriculture continues to be the most obvious means to stimulate broad based rural growth and to provide levels of food security and income needed for the majority rural population a longitudinal study over a decade during which radical policy and political changes occurred provides the data and basis for discussing the appropriate policy directions for reducing poverty

forest conservation in costa rica when nonuse benefits are uncertain but rising stochastic dynamic programming is used to investigate optimal holding of primary tropical forest in humid costa rica when future nonuse benefits of forest conservation are uncertain and increasing the quasi option value of maintaining primary forests is included as a component of investment in natural capital although the impact of uncertainty on conservation incentives is substantial our results indicate that a rising trend in future benefits and compensation by the international community for beneficial spillovers are more important factors in determining optimal holdings of forest stocks without compensatory payments however further deforestation may be warranted

the economic theory of rent seeking tullock s concept of rent seeking was the first statement of a quantitative principle about the social costs of such activities as lobbying and favor seeking as such this part of tullock s legacy to modern economics is one of his most important contributions

rent seeking and x inefficiency this paper discusses the social cost of monopoly with special attention given to the geometric representation of that social cost notably rent seeking and x inefficiency the possibility of an overlap between these two measures is examined in particular the paper addresses a problem of measure identification which highlights the need to reconsider the normative microfoundations of rent seeking

agricultural expansion and deforestation modelling the impact of population market forces and property rights abstract this paper compares four different modelling approaches to agricultural expansion and deforestation and explores the implications of assumptions about the household objectives the labour market and the property rights regime a major distinction is made between population and market based explanations many of the popular policy prescriptions are based on the population approach assuming subsistence behaviour and limited market integration within a more realistic particularly for the long term effects market approach well intentioned policies such as agricultural intensification programmes may boost deforestation many forest frontier contexts are also characterized by forest clearing giving farmers land rights deforestation becomes an investment to the farmer and a title establishment strategy land titling and credit programmes may therefore increase deforestation

collusion in ocean shipping a test of monopoly and empty core models in markets with avoidable fixed costs the core may be empty i argue that a reason for collusion is to impose an equilibrium where none exists i set up a framework for deriving testable implications from the model and compare those implications with those of a cartel model i compare the two models empirically with data from liner shipping conferences legal collusive agreements that have been in force for over a century and i conclude that the evidence supports the theory of the core

u turns and full circles two decades of agricultural reform in malawi 1981 2000 abstract this paper traces the evolution of malawi s agricultural policy over the past two decades during this period the world bank has played a key role in shaping policy reform through its adjustment loans three distinct reform phases can be identified 1981 87 when policy was dominated by the dogmatism of the world bank s pricist and state minimalist policies 1988 94 when a more flexible position was taken by both the bank and the malawi government both of whom acknowledged the structuralist critique of earlier policies and 1994 to the present when the reform process in agriculture became more politicized and a schism developed between the bank and the government this latter period is used to illustrate some of the unresolved policy issues pertaining to similar low income agrarian economies

the genesis of the trusts rationalization in empty core markets motivated by a desire to understand the origin of the great consolidation movement at the turn of the last century this paper examines the unique history of the american trusts and proposes a new interpretation of the motives and consequences of these consolidations it is hypothesized that the same demand and supply conditions that made multiplant organization more efficient in these industries also made it impossible to obtain in a competitive environment the theory of the core as applied to small numbers situations is used to show why competition had to be restricted before efficient industry configurations could be achieved and supportive historical data are presented

the economics of tropical forest land use options tropical deforestation is generally characterized as conversion of forest land to alternative uses notably agriculture this would suggest the need for rational decision making concerning the optimal allocation of tropical forest land between competing uses the following paper explores this problem by devising rules for determining optimal land use allocation between timber and agriculture at the stand and forest levels a complementary intertemporal model for optimal allocation of forest land to agricultural conversion at the forest level is also developed and used to derive a demand relationship for agricultural conversion which is then approximated through empirical estimation

retracted factors affecting commercial energy consumption in pakistan progress in energy the purpose of this study is to identify major macroeconomic factors that enhance energy consumption for pakistan through the cointegration error correction model and granger causality tests over a 32 year time period i e between 1980 and 2011 the study employed the bivariate cointegration technique to estimate the long run relationship between the variables an error correction model was used to determine the short run dynamics of the system while granger causality test was used to find the directions between these variables the study investigates the relation between four energy consumption variables i e oil petroleum consumption gas consumption electricity consumption and coal consumption and four macroeconomic factors which have further sub classifications i e balance of payment bop factors i e exports imports trade deficit worker s remittances and current account balance fuel factors i e carbon dioxide emissions natural resource depletion and net forest depletion agricultural crops yield per hectare i e wheat rice sugarcane maize and cotton and industrial production items i e beverages cigarettes motor tyres motor tubes cycle tyres and cycle tubes in order to manage robust data analysis the result confirms the long run relationship between total commercial energy consumption and macroeconomic factors in pakistan as oil petroleum consumption increases exports fuel factors agricultural crops yield per hectare and industrial items however the intensity of these factors are different in nature carbon dioxide emissions net forest depletion beverages motor tyres and motor tubes are more elastic with oil petroleum consumption however oil petroleum consumption decreases trade deficit and workers remittances in pakistan gas electricity and coal consumption increases agricultural crops yield per hectare and industrial production which shows that as agriculture and industry modernizes energy demand increases energizing the food production chain is an essential feature of agricultural development which is a prime factor in helping to achieve food security in pakistan the empirical results only moderately support the conventional view that energy consumption has significant long run casual effect on macroeconomic variables in pakistan the present study finds evident of unidirectional causality between the commercial energy consumption factors and macroeconomic factors in pakistan however there is some bidirectional causality exist which is running between electricity consumption ec and exports ec to imports ec to carbon emissions ec to natural resource depletion nrd and ec to wheat the results conclude that macroeconomic variables tend to positively respond to total primary energy consumption this indicates that increasing total commercial energy consumption may cause growth variables which show that pakistan is an input driven economy

foreign transfers and tropical deforestation what terms of conditionality the purpose of this paper is to propose a nonparametric interest rate term structure model and investigate its implications on term structure dynamics and prices of interest rate derivative securities the nonparametric spot interest rate process is estimated from the observed short term interest rates following a robust estimation procedure and the market price of interest rate risk is estimated as implied from the historical term structure data that is instead of imposing a priori restrictions on the model data are allowed to speak for themselves and at the same time the model retains a parsimonious structure and the computational tractability the model is implemented using historical canadian interest rate term structure data the parametric models with closed form solutions for bond and bond option prices namely the vasicek 1977 and cir 1985 models are also estimated for comparison purpose the empirical results not only provide strong evidence that the traditional spot interest rate models and market prices of interest rate risk are severely misspecified but also suggest that different model specifications have significant impact on term structure dynamics and prices of interest rate derivative securities

what is environmental income a growing number of studies have revealed the dependency particularly of poor people on income from wild and uncultivated resources inclusion and analysis of environmental income are important in diagnosing the extent of poverty for understanding its causes and in identifying policies for its alleviation the concept of environmental income is however poorly developed different studies use different measures while underlying assumptions are often neglected or only partly revealed in this paper we analyze the concept of environmental income with respect to its sources appropriate income measures and ways of separating environmental income from non environmental income we argue that natural rent realized through consumption or alienation within the first link of a market chain provides a precise and logically consistent measure of environmental income under conditions of perfect competition because of frequent imperfections in rural markets however and because estimation of rent may be infeasible a value added measure may sometimes have to be substituted regardless of which of the two concepts is chosen explicit specification would represent a significant improvement in much of the current literature

measuring the sustainability and economic viability of tropical farming systems a model from sub saharan africa abstract new technologies must be developed in sub saharan africa which are sustainable and economically viable this paper discusses a methodology for measuring the agricultural sustainability and economic viability of tropical farming systems for new technology evaluation the approach is based on the concept of interspatial and intertemporal total factor productivity paying particular attention to valuation of natural resource stock and flows agriculture is a sector which utilizes natural resources e g soil nutrients and the stock and flows of these resources affect the production environment however in many cases the stock of these resources is beyond the control of the farmer and must be accounted for in an agricultural sustainability and economic viability measurement for example soil nutrients are removed by crops erosion or leaching beyond the crop root zone or other processes such as volatilization of nitrogen agricultural production can also contribute to the stock of some nutrients by leguminous plants such as agroforestry systems using a data set available at the international institute of tropical agriculture we compute the intertemporal and interspatial total factor productivity indices for four cropping systems in southwestern nigeria using stock of major soil nutrients as the natural resource stock results show that the sustainability and economic viability measures are sensitive to changes in the stock and flow of soil nutrients as well as the material inputs and outputs where the contribution of natural resource stock and flows are important such as in the case of alley cropping the measures provide markedly different results from conventional tfp approaches the advantage of this approach is that interspatial and intertemporal total factor productivity measures are computed using only price and quantity data thus eliminating the need for econometric estimation

the empirical measurement of rent seeking costs this survey focuses on the efforts carried out mainly by public choice scholars to measure the social cost of rent seeking the concept introduced by gordon tullock in 1967 and coined by anne krueger in 1974 is well known and accepted by the profession but its empirical measurement has fallen behind with respect to its theoretical formulation an often criticized lack in the literature although there are good general surveys none has specifically focused on reviewing the empirical efforts made to measure the phenomenon the purpose of this paper is to provide such a survey it could be said that the rent seeking concept has been fully integrated into economic jargon it is commonly used when some agent seeks to obtain an artificial transfer usually from government and covers all the actions efforts or expenses that the agent has to carry out to obtain the prize the key issue however is the possible social waste that arises in these situations the empirical efforts to measure such waste constitute the main purpose of this survey the concept of rent seeking was introduced by tullock 1967 although the term was first coined by krueger 1974 in a paper not related to the former in a recent paper tullock himself wrote of the history of the concept and the intellectual context within which it arose tullock 2003 starting with the pioneering work by harberger 1954 several studies were conducted during the 1950s in which the calculation of the social cost of monopolies and tariffs always gave the result of very modest figures the first response to these results was made by leibenstein 1966 and his x efficiency which refers to a hypothetical loss in efficiency due to the absence of competition shortly after leibenstein s paper appeared tullock argued that the deadweight costs of monopoly and tariffs understate the true social cost because the expenditures made to capture related rents have to be included so rectangles as well as harberger s triangles have to be included in the calculations let us see this argument once more figure 1 depicts the iconic tullock graphic analysis of rent seeking it represents the demand schedule d for a monopolized good where pm is the monopoly

environmental entitlements dynamics and institutions in community based natural resource management abstract while community based natural resource management cbnrm now attracts widespread international attention its practical implementation frequently falls short of expectations this paper contributes to emerging critiques by focusing on the implications of intracommunity dynamics and ecological heterogeneity it builds a conceptual framework highlighting the central role of institutions regularized patterns of behavior between individuals and groups in society in mediating environment society relationships grounded in an extended form of entitlements analysis the framework explores how differently positioned social actors command environmental goods and services that are instrumental to their well being further insights are drawn from analyses of social difference new dynamic ecology new institutional economics structuration theory and landscape history the theoretical argument is illustrated with case material from india south africa and ghana

can income programs reduce tropical forest pressure income shocks and forest use in malawi summary seasonal household data from malawi are used to study links between income shocks and forest use a tobit model is estimated to examine whether household forest use responds to receipt of a positive income shock delivered as a technology assistance package and the characteristics of households reliant on forests for shock coping results show households experiencing an income boost had lower forest extraction compared to households that did not receive such a shock ceteris paribus we find households most dependent on forests for natural insurance are those located near woodlands and headed by an individual who is relatively young and male 2005 published by elsevier ltd

principles of stochastic dynamic optimization in resource management the continuous time case abstract a wide range of problems in economics agriculture and natural resource management have been analyzed using continuous time optimal control models where the state variables change over time in a stochastic manner using a firm level investment model and a model of environmental degradation this paper provides a concise introduction to continuous time stochastic control techniques the process used to derive the differential of a stochastic process is stressed and in turn is used to explain ito s lemma bellman s equation the hamilton jacobi equation the maximum principle and the expected dynamics of choice variables a basic extension of the dynamic duality literature is also provided where the hamilton jacobi equation is used to derive a stochastic and dynamic analogue of hotelling s lemma

poverty alleviation and tropical forests what scope for synergies abstract this paper explores the state of the art of the two way causal links between poverty alleviation and natural tropical forests microimpacts of rising poverty can increase or slow forest loss at the macrolevel poverty also has an ambiguous effect but it is probable that higher income stimulates forest loss by raising demand for agricultural land the second question is what potential forest led development has to alleviate a country s poverty in terms of producer benefits consumer benefits and economy wide employment natural forests widely serve as safety nets for the rural poor but it proves difficult to raise producer benefits significantly urban consumer benefits from forest an important target for pro poor agricultural innovation are limited and seldom favor the poor absorption of poor unskilled labor is low in forestry which tends to be capital intensive natural forests may thus lack comparative advantage for poverty alleviation there are few win win synergies between natural forests and national poverty reduction which may help to explain why the loss of tropical forests is ongoing this may have important implications for our understanding of sustainable forest development and for the design of both conservation and poverty alleviation strategies

an application of core theory to the analysis of ocean shipping markets he theory of the core implies that competition is frequently unstable and inefficient under some fairly common cost and demand conditions in particular when costs are characterized by indivisibilities for example avoidable costs and demand is finely divisible the core may be empty in other words a competitive equilibrium frequently fails to exist and as a consequence competitive interactions between firms cannot generate an efficient allocation of resources there are various means of addressing the empty core problem collusion between producers for example can limit competition efficiently thus cartelization may be an efficient response to the cost and demand conditions that preclude the existence of a competitive equilibrium in this article i test the ability of the theory to explain the organization of ocean shipping markets an examination of these markets reveals that the theory works well firms in liner shipping markets where costs are indivisible while demand is finely divisible have colluded consistently since the industry s birth in the mid nineteenth century conversely bulk shipping markets where demand is indivisible and hence empty core problems are not a serious concern have always been organized competitively this evidence is consistent with the theory s predictions

evaluating rent seeking losses do the welfare gains of lobbyists count the purpose of this paper is to help reduce the confusion that some readers of the rent seeking literature have about the scope of rent seeking losses in conversations with economists only casually familiar with the literature one often hears the question don t the welfare gains of lobbyists count in other words aren t rent seeking losses actually the gains of lobbyists and thus simply the result of miscounting the benefits the answer to that question is simply no but to my knowledge no one has demonstrated the logic of this fundamental point a secondary purpose of the paper is to clarify the extent of rent seeking losses associated with monopolizing activities this paper demonstrates the tullock rectangle understates the extent of rent seeking losses in circumstances where alternative uses of resources are productive in the sense that positive net benefits could have been generated to simplify suppose that a firm or group of firms spends c dollars in order to raise prices above competitive levels say by having an entry barrier of one sort or another enacted by the local legislature the result will be a higher market price and a harberger dead weight loss triangle of the usual sort this result is depicted in figure 1 as the shaded triangle above po immediately to the left of the demand curve the maximum amount that would be mono

depletion of forest resources in sudan intervention options for optimal control agricultural expansion and over cutting of trees for fuelwood are important causes of deforestation in arid and semi arid countries such as sudan the consequence is increased desertification and high erosion and loss of soil nutrients leading to declining agricultural productivity however the social costs of the deforestation externality are not taken into account in present forest management and land use planning in sudan leading to under pricing and over exploitation of the country s forest resources this study evaluated the suitability of approaches commonly used by most forest resource management agencies for prediction of the state and control of harvesting of forest resources against alternative empirical simulation models using relevant information about economic behaviour of trading agents in the fuelwood market results showed the clear superiority of models integrating market behaviour over current approaches in the ability to better simulate real trends of wood consumption and hence depletion rates the study also adopted an optimal control model to derive socially optimal forest harvesting regimes the results showed that current rates of forest resource rent recovery and reforestation efforts are very far from optimal results also suggest that in addition to optimal pricing and higher reforestation efforts promotion and availability of fuel substitutes and investment in wood energy conversion efficiencies have a strong potential for curbing the problem of deforestation in sudan

extensification of agriculture and deforestation empirical evidence from sudan extensification of agriculture is one of the major factors contributing to the destruction of forests in africa in sudan such horizontal expansion comes at the expense of land devoted to trees and other vegetation thereby inducing conditions that are inimical to sustainable agricultural production different factors have contributed to extensification although high economic returns from crop mainly sorghum production was an important factor encouraging extensification of rainfed mechanized farming other factors outside agriculture have also contributed to that expansion this paper uses data from eastern sudan and an acreage response model to identify the most important factors influencing acreage expansion different measures and forms of risk were used in the acreage response model the paper shows how policies in the energy sector can indirectly influence acreage expansion in the agricultural sector

adapting to adjustment smallholder livelihood strategies in southern malawi abstract this study uses the sustainable livelihoods framework to analyze changes in livelihood strategies for 50 case study households in the blantyre shire highlands southern malawi during 1990 2000 although evidence from rapid rural appraisal rra suggests that the poor are becoming poorer the majority 56 reported an improvement in their economic status improvement was linked to market liberalization through higher income from crops burley tobacco vegetables grain legumes and microenterprise one quarter of households were worse off downward economic mobility was attributable partly to market liberalization but also to the adverse consequences of widowhood or divorce for female headed households monitoring livelihoods under adjustment requires a pluralist approach that relies not just on rra but also on quantitative methods household case studies and insights from farming systems research

population tenure and natural resource management the case of customary land area in malawi abstract this paper analyzes the factors determining conversion of woodlands to agricultural land changes in tree cover and maize yield for the last two and a half decades by using aerial photos and field survey data in 57 communities in malawi the econometric analysis revealed that population pressure led to greater land conversion but had no effect on yield or tree cover changes areas where greater changes in traditional tenure systems have occurred are associated with reduction in tree cover and expansion of agricultural land these results suggest the importance of strengthening institutions to manage natural resources

deforestation and agricultural productivity in the cote d ivoire an optimal control model is used to determine the optimal steady state forest stock in the cote d ivoire this stock is shown to increase with increases in the forestry returns relative to those in agriculture technological progress in agriculture and increases in the social discount rate serve to lower the optimal steady state forest stock based on an estimated aggregate yield function the optimal forest stock is shown to be most sensitive to changes in the social rate of discount assuming current 1985 technology deforestation appears socially optimal only for values of the discount rate greater than 8

empirical regularities in the poverty environment relationship of rural households evidence from zimbabwe abstract analysis of rural households and environmental resources is beset by inadequate data especially in africa using purpose collected panel data from zimbabwe we demonstrate seven empirical regularities in the rural poverty environment relationship most important environmental resources make a significant contribution to average rural incomes poorer households also depend heavily on these resources which contribute c 40 to their incomes richer households however use greater quantities of environmental resources in total finally considerable differentiation exists in the economic characteristics of environmental goods these results demonstrate the considerable economic significance of environmental resources to rural households surveys which ignore them miscalculate rural incomes and welfare

managing tropical forests reflections on the rent distribution discussion commercial forest extraction is one component of the tropical deforestation issue discussions about commercial extraction focus on choices among alternate rents and royalties these discussions often confuse measures of short and long run efficiency and equate distributive issues with efficiency they also overlook 1 potential lump sum charges 2 administrative costs and 3 previous public forestry agency experience this paper develops a simple analytical construct for clarifying these issues and examines each in turn