IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaaeo6/197891.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Debt Peonage and Over-Deforestation in the Amazon Frontier of Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • de Almeida, Anna Luiza Ozorio

Abstract

This paper proposes that under the conditions typical of the Amazon frontier of Brazilabsence of a wage labour market and abundant supply of land-farm-family labour is a positive function of debt. This labour supply response, known as "debt peonage," provides for indirect management of farm labour by local merchants via the crop lien mechanism. A microeconomic model of the family farm shows that debt-labour leads to labour-intensive farming but land-extensive farming leads to over-deforestation. Correct colonization policy should then provide for market structures that reduce indebtedness and deforestation. This would also reduce the environmental consequences of settlement in the Amazon.

Suggested Citation

  • de Almeida, Anna Luiza Ozorio, 1992. "Debt Peonage and Over-Deforestation in the Amazon Frontier of Brazil," 1992 Occasional Paper Series No. 6 197891, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaaeo6:197891
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.197891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/197891/files/agecon-occpapers-1992-041_1_.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.197891?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ransom, Roger L. & Sutch, Richard, 1972. "Debt Peonage in the Cotton South After the Civil War," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(3), pages 641-669, September.
    2. Domar, Evsey D., 1970. "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 18-32, March.
    3. Bhaduri, Amit, 1973. "A Study in Agricultural Backwardness under Semi-Feudalism," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 83(329), pages 120-137, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonathan Conning, 2004. "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom and the Roads to Agrarian Capitalism: Domar's Hypothesis Revisited," Economics Working Paper Archive at Hunter College 401, Hunter College Department of Economics.
    2. Guirkinger, Catherine & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2015. "Transformation of the family farm under rising land pressure: A theoretical essay," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 112-137.
    3. Mayshar, Joram & Moav, Omer & Neeman, Zvika, 2011. "Transparency, Appropriability and the Early State," CEPR Discussion Papers 8548, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Bobonis, Gustavo J. & Morrow, Peter M., 2014. "Labor coercion and the accumulation of human capital," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 32-53.
    5. Richard Langlois, 2013. "The Institutional Revolution: A review essay," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 383-395, December.
    6. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Francesco Cinnirella & Oded Galor & Boris Gershman & Erik Hornung, 2017. "Capital-Skill Complementarity and the Emergence of Labor Emancipation," Working Papers 2017-1, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    7. Börner, Lars & Severgnini, Battista, 2011. "Epidemic trade," Discussion Papers 2011/12, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    8. Klas Rönnbäck, 2014. "Slave ownership and fossil fuel usage: a commentary," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 1-9, January.
    9. Ewout Frankema & Marlous van Waijenburg, 2011. "African Real Wages in Asian Perspective, 1880-1940," Working Papers 0002, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    10. Sanjib Baruah, 1990. "The End of the Road in Land Reform? Limits to Redistribution in West Bengal," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 119-146, January.
    11. Khanna, Madhulika & Majumdar, Shruti, 2020. "Caste-ing wider nets of credit: A mixed methods analysis of informal lending and caste relations in Bihar," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    12. Pascale COMBES MOTEL & Jean-Louis COMBES & Catherine ARAUJO BONJEAN & Claudio ARAUJO & Eustaquio J. REIS, 2010. "Does Land Tenure Insecurity Drive Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon?," Working Papers 201013, CERDI.
    13. Oscar Amarasinghe, 1989. "Technical Change, Transformation of Risks and Patronage Relations in a Fishing Community of South Sri Lanka," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 20(4), pages 701-733, October.
    14. Abel Gwaindepi, 2022. "Fiscal capacity in ‘‘responsible government’’ colonies: the Cape Colony in comparative perspective, c. 1865–1910 [The spread of empire: Clio and the measurement of colonial borrowing costs]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(3), pages 340-369.
    15. Mikolaj Malinowski, 2013. "East of Eden: Polish living standards in a European perspective, ca. 1500-1800," Working Papers 0043, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    16. Fenske, James, 2010. "Institutions in African history and development: A review essay," MPRA Paper 23120, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Pietri, Antoine & Tazdaït, Tarik & Vahabi, Mehrdad, 2013. "Empire-building and Price Competition," MPRA Paper 63486, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Sep 2014.
    18. Geron, Maria Piedad S., 1989. "Microeconomic Behavior of Agents in a Credit-Output Market in an Agricultural Setting," Philippine Journal of Development JPD 1989 Vol. XVI No.1-a, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    19. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A., 2005. "Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 385-472, Elsevier.
    20. Jongman, Willem M. & Jacobs, Jan P.A.M. & Klein Goldewijk, Geertje M., 2019. "Health and wealth in the Roman Empire," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 138-150.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:iaaeo6:197891. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.