Climate Change and Food Security: Do Spatial Spillovers Matter?

This article analyzes the role of spatial spillovers in the relationship between climate change and food security in developing countries over the period of 1971-2010. Using a Samuelson’s spatial price equilibrium model (theoretically) and Spatial Durbin Model (empirically), results show a strategic substitutability between the levels of food availability in the countries suggesting that an increase of food availability in a given country decreases the food availability of neighboring countries. Second climate change (water balance variability, droughts, floods and extreme temperatures) reduces food availability both in the affected countries and its main food trading partners. Third, food demand factors in a country may have the opposite (asymmetric) effect on its major trading partners. Fourth, supply factors have symmetric impact on food availability

Impact Evaluation in a Landscape: Protected Natural Forests, Anthropized Forested Lands and Deforestation Leakages in Madagascar's Rainforests

This paper analyzes deforestation leakages from natural rainforests to anthropized habitats following the creation of Protected Areas in Madagascar. A simple theoretical framework highlights that a conservation constraint does not necessarily create deforestation leakages on secondary forests. An original dataset is built combining fine scale vegetation cover images and spatialized census data over the period 2000 to 2012. Cover images allow us to distinguish a mosaic of landscapes. Multilevel panel regressions and matching techniques indicate a causal effect of Protected Areas on deforestation leakages. Though Protected Areas reduce deforestation in protected natural forests, forest clearing is mostly reported on other types of anthropized forests. Our results demonstrate the limitations of Porter-like mechanism in agricultural innovation. They also support the hypothesis of a conservation dilemma: protecting biodiversity may come at the expense of the welfare of locals who rely on local (provisioning) ecosystem services

Addressing Contextual and Location Biases in the Assessment of Protected Areas Effectiveness on Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazônia

Using a remotely sensed pixel data set, we develop a multilevel model and propensity score weighting with multilevel data to assess the impact of protected areas on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. These techniques allow taking into account location bias, contextual bias and the dependence of spatial units. The results suggest that protected areas have slowed down deforestation between 2005 and 2009, whatever the type of governance. The results also evidence that protected and unprotected areas do not share the same location characteristics. In addition, the effectiveness of protected areas differs according to socioeconomic and environmental variables measured at municipal level

A spatial econometric approach to spillover effects between protected areas and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Etudes & documentsProtected areas are increasingly used as a tool to fight against deforestation. This paper presents new evidence on the spillover effects that occur in the decision to deforest and the creation of protected areas in local administrative entities in Brazilian Legal Amazon over the 2001-2011 period. We also highlight the interdependence between these two decisions. We proceed in two steps. First, we assumed that protected areas are created to stop the negative effects of deforestation on biodiversity. In order to control for the non-random location of protected areas, biodiversity indicators are used as excluded instruments. This model is estimated using a spatial model with instrumental variables. Second, a simultaneous system of spatially interrelated cross sectional equations is used to take into account the interdependence between the decision to deforest and the creation of protected areas. Our results show (i) that deforestation activities of neighboring municipalities are complements and that (ii) there is evidence of leakage in the sense that protected areas may shift deforestation to neighboring municipalities. The net effect of protected areas on deforestation remains however negative; it is moreover stable across two sub-periods. Our results confirm the important role of protected areas to curb deforestation and thereby biodiversity erosion. Moreover, they show that strategic interactions deserve attention in the effectiveness of conservation policies

Analyse économétrique des décisions de production des propriétaires forestiers privés non industriels en France

Timber production is related to economic, climate and energy issues. In France,according to data from the National Institute of Geoinformation and Forestry, thebiological growth rate of the forest is greater than the timber harvest rate. Thus, theFrench government has set a target of harvesting an additional quantity of 21 millioncubic meter of timber by 2020 ("Grenelle de l'environnement, 2007"). However, theFrench forest is majority owned by private forest owners who have preferences forboth income from timber trade and from non-timber amenities. The policies toincrease timber production must include these aspects. The objective of this thesisis to understand the determinants of joint production of timber and non-timberamenities in France.Therefore, we first analyze private forest owners' timber supply, taking into accountindividual and regional determinants. Afterwards, we investigate whether thedrivers of forest owners behavior differ within and between these different levels.We show that similar timber supply behavior can be observed when regional characteristicsor those of peers are similar. Then, we highlight a mimicry behavior injoint production decisions of timber and amenities made by private forest owners.Finally, we analyze inter-temporal trade-offs made by the owners from non-timberamenities and income from the sale of wood. We explicitly take into account theprice expectations and growth. Our estimations show that the willingness to pay fornon-timber amenities is e23 for our case study. This value is the difference betweenthe value they could have earned if they tried to maximize timber revenue and therevenue of their actual logging.Mainly beacause of a lack of involvement of private owners, either through a lackof knowledge or interest in their forest, or because other aspects are privileged (nontimberamenities, e.g.), a part of forest ressource is not subject to a commercial offer.Providing ways to mobilize this ressource is one of the challenges of this work. Weshow that the mimetic effects and the contextual effects can be used to encourageforest owners to produce more timber. An effective policy could be a combinationof these two effects. We also show that an increase in the price of timber or theadoption of a tax may be an incentive for timber harvesting.La production de bois intègre notamment des enjeux économiques, climatiques et énergétiques. En France, selon les données de l'Institut National de l'Information Géographique et Forestière, l'accroissement biologique de la forêt est largement supérieur aux prélèvements de bois. C'est pourquoi l'État français a fixé l'objectif de prélever 21 millions de m3 supplémentaires de bois d'ici 2020 (Grenelle de l'environnement, 2007). Cependant, la forêt française appartient majoritairement à des propriétaires forestiers privés qui ont des préférences à la fois pour le revenu issu de la vente de bois et pour les aménités non-bois. Les politiques visant à accroître la production de bois doivent donc intégrer ces aspects. L'objectif de ce travail de thèse est de comprendre les déterminants de la production jointe de bois et d'aménités non-bois en France. Pour ce faire, nous nous sommes d'abord intéressés aux déterminants individuels et régionaux de l'offre de bois. Nous montrons que le comportement d'offre de bois d'un propriétaire peut varier en fonction du comportement de production de bois constaté chez ses pairs (effets sociaux). Ensuite, nous mettons en évidence un comportement de mimétisme dans les décisions de production jointe de bois et d'aménités des propriétaires forestiers privés. Enfin, nous analysons les arbitrages inter-temporels réalisés par les propriétaires entre aménités non-bois et revenu de la vente de bois en prenant en compte explicitement les anticipations de prix et de croissance. Nous évaluons à 23e par an la valeur que les propriétaires de notre échantillon accordent à 1m3/ha de bois supplémentaire laissé sur pied par rapport au niveau de stock des propriétaires industriels afin d'avoir des aménités plus importantes.Un des enjeux de ce travail est d?offrir des pistes pour mobiliser la ressource forestière ne faisant pas l'objet d'une offre, faute d'implication des propriétaires privés, soit par manque de connaissance ou d'intérêt pour leur forêt, soit parce que d'autres aspects sont privilégiés (services d'aménités non-bois par exemple). Dans cette thèse, nous montrons que les effets de mimétisme et d'entrainement social (effets sociaux) peuvent être utilisés pour amener les propriétaires forestiers à produire plus de bois. Nous montrons également, qu'une hausse du prix du bois ou la mise en place d'une taxepeut favoriser la prise de la décision de coupe de bois et augmenter l'intensité de la récolte

Attitude towards Risk and Production Decision: An Empirical analysis on French private forest owners

Etudes & documentsThis paper deals with the forest owner’s attitude towards risk and the harvesting decision in several ways.First, we propose to characterize and quantify the forest owner’s attitude towards risk.Second, we analyze the determinants of the forest owner’s risk attitude. Finally, we determine the impact of the forest owner’s risk attitude on the harvesting decision. The French forest owner’s risk attitude is tackled by implementing a questionnaire, including a context-free measure borrowed from experimental economics. The determinants of the forest owner’s risk attitude and harvesting decision are estimated through a recursive bivariate ordered probit model. We show that French forest owners are characterized by a relative risk aversion coefficient close to 1. In addition, we found that the forest owner’s risk aversion is influenced positively and significantly by gender (female), age, and willingness to protect the environment, while the percentage of forest income in the total patrimony of the forest owner has a negative effect.Finally, we obtain that the forest owner’s risk aversion positively and significantly impacts the harvesting decision

Do Natural Disasters Hurt Tax Resource Mobilization?

According to several reports, natural disasters and climate change will intensify and dampen development if appropriate measures are not implemented. Our paper contributes to this literature and analyzes the impact of natural disasters on domestic resource mobilization in developing countries. Using propensity score matching estimators over the period of 1980-2012 for 120 developing countries, our results conclude that government revenues decrease in the aftermath of natural disasters. Moreover natural disasters that occur in border countries have a negative impact on government revenues of neighbor countries. However, the adverse effects of natural disasters are dampened in countries with high level of resilience capacity and stronger governance

Land use and drinking water supply: A spatial switching regression model with spatial endogenous switching

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Land use and drinking water supply

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Land use and drinking water supply: A sample selection model with spatial dependence

This study analyzes the impact of land use on the costs of drinking water supply using a sample of water supply services (Wss) in the Vosges department in France. We introduce a switching model to account for the interactions between management regimes (public vs. delegated) and Wss prices. This model also allows for spatial interactions between Wss and omitted spatial explanatory variables. The results confirm that forest land cover reduces the price of drinking water and that spatial factors influence the choice of management and prices. It was also found that the organization of the Wss influences water prices.Cette étude analyse l’impact de l’usage des sols sur les coûts d’alimentation en eau potable à partir d’un échantillon de services d’eau du département des Vosges en France. Nous présentons un modèle à deux régimes pour tenir compte des interactions entre le mode de gestion (publique ou déléguée) et des prix de l’eau. Ce modèle autorise également des interactions spatiales entre les services d’eau et des variables explicatives spatiales omises. Les résultats confirment que le couvert forestier réduit le prix de l’eau potable et que des facteurs spatiaux influencent le choix de mode de gestion et les prix de l’eau. On montre aussi que l’organisation des services d’eau a un impact sur les prix de l’ea