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On Price Liberalization, Poverty, and Shifting Cultivation: An Example from Mexico

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  • Unai Pascual
  • Edward B. Barbier

Abstract

A bioeconomic model is used to explore the potential impacts of price policies on land use under shifting cultivation. The model is calibrated with household level and agroecological data from Yucatan, Mexico. Besides the direct effect of the liberalization of maize prices, the results indicate that changes in real wages in post-NAFTA Mexico may have non-expected effects on the labor diversification and land-use decisions of households. Further, it is shown that income may well be inversely related to both the suboptimal level of forest clearing, and the state of soil fertility, albeit in a non-monotonic (U-shape) way.

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  • Unai Pascual & Edward B. Barbier, 2007. "On Price Liberalization, Poverty, and Shifting Cultivation: An Example from Mexico," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 83(2), pages 192-216.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:83:y:2007:i:2:p:192-216
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    2. Zhou, Jie & Zhong, Hua & Hu, Wuyang & Qiao, Guanghua, 2022. "Substitution versus wealth: Dual effects of non-pastoral income on livestock herd size," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    3. Yoshito Takasaki, 2011. "Economic models of shifting cultivation: a review," Tsukuba Economics Working Papers 2011-006, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba.
    4. Yoshito Takasaki & Oliver T. Coomes & Christian Abizaid & Stéphanie Brisson, 2014. "An Efficient Nonmarket Institution under Imperfect Markets: Labor Sharing for Tropical Forest Clearing," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(3), pages 711-732.
    5. Unai Pascual & Roberto Martínez-Espiñeira, 2009. "The effect of environmental change and price policies on livelihoods in tropical agroforestry systems," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 433-446.
    6. Edward B. Barbier & Ramón E. López & Jacob P. Hochard, 2016. "Debt, Poverty and Resource Management in a Rural Smallholder Economy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 411-427, February.
    7. Arrocha, Fernando & Villena, Mauricio G., 2011. "Applying a bio-economic optimal control model to charcoal production: The case of slash and burn agriculture in Mexico [Aplicando un modelo bio-económico de control óptimo a la producción de carbón," MPRA Paper 36361, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Feb 2012.
    8. Pascual, Unai & Martinez-Espineira, Roberto, 2006. "Poverty and environmental degradation under trade liberalization: searching for second-best policy options," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 6(12), pages 1-24.
    9. Godoy, Ricardo & Reyes-García, Victoria & Vadez, Vincent & Leonard, William R. & Tanner, Susan & Huanca, Toms & Wilkie, David, 2009. "The relation between forest clearance and household income among native Amazonians: Results from the Tsimane' Amazonian panel study, Bolivia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1864-1871, April.
    10. Barbier, Edward B., 2012. "Natural capital, ecological scarcity and rural poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6232, The World Bank.
    11. Edward B. Barbier & Jacob P. Hochard, 2019. "Poverty-Environment Traps," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(3), pages 1239-1271, November.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q24 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Land

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