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Poverty and the Environment: Exploring the Relationship between Household Incomes, Private Assets, and Natural Assets

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  • Narain, Urvashi
  • Gupta, Shreekant
  • van 't Veld, Klaas

Abstract

Using purpose-collected survey data from 537 households in 60 different villages of the Jhabua district of India, this paper investigates the extent to which rural households depend on common-pool natural resources for their daily livelihood. Previous studies have found that resource dependence- defined as the fraction of total income derived from common-pool resources-strongly decreases with income. Our study finds a more complex relationship. First, for the subsample of households that use positive amounts of resources, we find that dependence follows a U-shaped relationship with income, declining at first but then increasing. Second, we find that the probability of being in the subsample of common-pool resource users follows an inverse U-shaped relationship with income: the poorest and richest households are less likely to collect resources than those with intermediate incomes. Resource use by the rich is therefore bimodal: either very high or-for the very richest households-zero. Third, we find that resource dependence increases at all income levels with an increase in the level of common-pool biomass availability. The combination of these results suggests that the quality of natural resources matters to a larger share of the rural population than had been previously believed; common-pool resources contribute a significant fraction of the income not just of the desperately poor, but also of the relatively rich.

Suggested Citation

  • Narain, Urvashi & Gupta, Shreekant & van 't Veld, Klaas, 2005. "Poverty and the Environment: Exploring the Relationship between Household Incomes, Private Assets, and Natural Assets," Discussion Papers 10694, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:rffdps:10694
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.10694
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Urvashi Narain & Shreekant Gupta & Klaas van ’t Veld, 2008. "Poverty and the Environment: Exploring the Relationship Between Household Incomes, Private Assets, and Natural Assets," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(1), pages 148-167.
    2. Reddy, S. R. C. & Chakravarty, S. P., 1999. "Forest Dependence and Income Distribution in a Subsistence Economy: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1141-1149, July.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food Security and Poverty;

    JEL classification:

    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q21 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices

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