IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ipe/ipetds/0065.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Cost-benefit Analysis of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Author

Listed:
  • Lykke E. Andersen

Abstract

This paper compares the Total Economic Value of standing Amazonian rain forest with the Net Present Value of alternative agricultural land uses. It is shown that, at the current level of deforestation, the potential benefits of deforestation are higher than the expected costs. As the level of deforestation increases, however, the global costs of deforestation will rise, and eventually pass the value of agricultural land. At that point, the international community will have to provide incentives to induce Brazil to preserve the remainder of its rain forest.

Suggested Citation

  • Lykke E. Andersen, 2015. "A Cost-benefit Analysis of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," Discussion Papers 0065, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
    • Handle: RePEc:ipe:ipetds:0065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/images/stories/PDFs/TDs/ingles/dp_65.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anwar Shah & Bjorn Larsen, 2014. "Carbon taxes, the greenhouse effect, and developing countries," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 15(1), pages 353-402, May.
    2. Weitzman Martin L., 1994. "On the Environmental Discount Rate," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 200-209, March.
    3. William R. Cline, 1992. "Economics of Global Warming, The," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 39, October.
    4. Toniolo, Angelica & Uhl, Christopher, 1995. "Economic and ecological perspectives on agriculture in the Eastern Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 959-973, June.
    5. Ekin, Paul, 1996. "The secondary benefits of CO2 abatement: How much emission reduction do they justify?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 13-24, January.
    6. Peter Hoeller & Jonathan Coppel, 1992. "Energy Taxation and Price Distortions in Fossil Fuel Markets: Some Implications for Climate Change Policy," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 110, OECD Publishing.
    7. Polasky Stephen & Solow Andrew R., 1995. "On the Value of a Collection of Species," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 298-303, November.
    8. Stephen C Peck & Thomas J. Teisberg, 1992. "CETA: A Model for Carbon Emissions Trajectory Assessment," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 55-78.
    9. Mattos, Marli Maria & Uhl, Christopher, 1994. "Economic and ecological perspectives on ranching in the Eastern Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 145-158, February.
    10. James M. Poterba, 1993. "Global Warming Policy: A Public Finance Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 47-63, Fall.
    11. Samuel Fankhauser, 1994. "The Social Costs of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: An Expected Value Approach," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 157-184.
    12. Pinedo-Vasquez, Miguel & Zarin, Daniel & Jipp, Peter, 1992. "Economic returns from forest conversion in the Peruvian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 163-173, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cavatassi, Romina, 2004. "Valuation methods for environmental benefits in forestry and watershed investment projects," ESA Working Papers 23799, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    2. Turner, R. Kerry & Paavola, Jouni & Cooper, Philip & Farber, Stephen & Jessamy, Valma & Georgiou, Stavros, 2003. "Valuing nature: lessons learned and future research directions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 493-510, October.
    3. Weinhold, Diana, 1999. "Estimating the loss of agricultural productivity in the Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 63-76, October.
    4. Octavio Ramirez & Carlos Carpio & Rosalba Ortiz & Brian Finnegan, 2002. "Economic Value of the Carbon Sink Services of Tropical Secondary Forests and Its Management Implications," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 21(1), pages 23-46, January.
    5. Andre Chagas & Luiza Andrade, 2013. "Opportunity cost of environmental preservation: the case of the Brazilian Legal Amazon," ERSA conference papers ersa13p644, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Franklin, Sergio L. & Pindyck, Robert S., 2018. "Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 161-171.
    7. Giudice, Renzo & Börner, Jan, 2021. "Benefits and costs of incentive-based forest conservation in the Peruvian Amazon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    8. Casse, Thorkil & Milhoj, Anders & Ranaivoson, Socrate & Romuald Randriamanarivo, Jean, 2004. "Causes of deforestation in southwestern Madagascar: what do we know?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 33-48, January.
    9. Sergio Margulis, 2004. "Causes of Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15060, December.
    10. Diniz, Marcelo Bentes & Alves, Vanesa Da Paixão & Diniz, Márcia Jucá Teixeira, 2018. "Does Amazonian land use display market failure? An opportunity-cost approach to the analysis of Amazonian environmental services," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    11. Lykke E. Andersen & Eustáquio J. Reis, 2015. "Deforestation, Development, and Government Policy in the Brazilian Amazon: an Econometric Analysis," Discussion Papers 0069, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
    12. Isabel Mendes, 2018. "Social risks of forest fires: a methodological proposal for their monetary evaluation," Working Papers Department of Economics 2018/02, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    13. May, Peter H. & Soares-Filho, Britaldo Silveira & Strand, Jon, 2013. "How much is the Amazon worth ? the state of knowledge concerning the value of preserving amazon rainforests," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6668, The World Bank.

    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. Emilio Padilla, 2002. "Limitations and biases of conventional analysis of climate change. Towards an analysis coherent with sustainable development," Working Papers wp0206, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    2. Zhang, ZhongXiang & Baranzini, Andrea, 2004. "What do we know about carbon taxes? An inquiry into their impacts on competitiveness and distribution of income," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 507-518, March.
    3. Toth, Ferenc L, 1995. "Discounting in integrated assessments of climate change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4-5), pages 403-409.
    4. Zhongxiang Zhang, 1994. "Setting Targets and the Choice of Policy Instruments for Limiting CO2 Emissions1," Energy & Environment, , vol. 5(4), pages 327-341, December.
    5. Robinson, James A. & Srinivasan, T.N., 1993. "Long-term consequences of population growth: Technological change, natural resources, and the environment," Handbook of Population and Family Economics, in: M. R. Rosenzweig & Stark, O. (ed.), Handbook of Population and Family Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 1175-1298, Elsevier.
    6. Rick Baker & Andrew Barker & Alan Johnston & Michael Kohlhaas, 2008. "The Stern Review: an assessment of its methodology," Staff Working Papers 0801, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia.
    7. Bovenberg, A. Lans & Goulder, Lawrence H., 2002. "Environmental taxation and regulation," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 23, pages 1471-1545, Elsevier.
    8. Plambeck, Erica L. & Hope, Chris & Anderson, John, 1997. "The model: Integrating the science and economics of global warming," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 77-101, March.
    9. W. J. McKibbin & T. J. Bok, "undated". "The Impact on the Asia-Pacific Region of Fiscal Policy of the United States and Japan," Discussion Papers 120, Brookings Institution International Economics.
    10. Adam Rose & Brandt Stevens, 1998. "A Dynamic Analysis of Fairness in Global Warming Policy: Kyoto, Buenos Aires, and Beyond," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 1, pages 329-362, November.
    11. Linda Sygna & Jan Fuglestvedt & H. Aaheim, 2002. "The adequacy of GWPs as indicators of damage costsincurred by global warming," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 45-62, March.
    12. Azar, Christian & Sterner, Thomas, 1996. "Discounting and distributional considerations in the context of global warming," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 169-184, November.
    13. Plambeck, Erica L & Hope, Chris, 1996. "PAGE95 : An updated valuation of the impacts of global warming," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(9), pages 783-793, September.
    14. Hoel, Michael & Kverndokk, Snorre, 1996. "Depletion of fossil fuels and the impacts of global warming," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 115-136, June.
    15. Ruiz Estrada, Mario Arturo, 2013. "The Macroeconomics evaluation of Climate Change Model (MECC-Model): The case Study of China," MPRA Paper 49158, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 18 Aug 2013.
    16. Fankhauser, Samuel & Kverndokk, Snorre, 1996. "The global warming game -- Simulations of a CO2-reduction agreement," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 83-102, March.
    17. Richard S.J. Tol & Samuel Fankhauser & Richard G. Richels & Joel B. Smith, 2000. "How Much Damage Will Climate Change Do? Recent Estimates," Working Papers FNU-2, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Sep 2000.
    18. Tol, Richard S.J., 2006. "The Polluter Pays Principle and Cost-Benefit Analysis of Climate Change: An Application of Fund," Climate Change Modelling and Policy Working Papers 12058, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Kenneth Rødseth & Eirik Romstad, 2014. "Environmental Regulations, Producer Responses, and Secondary Benefits: Carbon Dioxide Reductions Under the Acid Rain Program," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 59(1), pages 111-135, September.
    20. Wei, Yi-Ming & Mi, Zhi-Fu & Huang, Zhimin, 2015. "Climate policy modeling: An online SCI-E and SSCI based literature review," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 57(PA), pages 70-84.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ipe:ipetds:0065. 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: Fabio Schiavinatto (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipeaabr.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.