The Environmental Resource Curse Hypothesis: The Forest Case

Cahier du LEF No. 2009-04

10 Pages Posted: 26 Sep 2007 Last revised: 9 Sep 2009

See all articles by Philippe Delacote

Philippe Delacote

LEF-ENGREF-INRA

Olivier Damette

University Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC)

Date Written: 2009

Abstract

The resource curse hypothesis relies on the resource-rich countries tendency to grow slower than resource-poor countries. Focusing on forest issues, this paper extends the resource curse hypothesis to environmental degradation: how do forest endowment and forest harvesting affect deforestation? Our empirical results show that countries with important forest cover and forestry sectors seem to deforest more than others, which supports the hypothesis of an environmental resource curse. Moreover, countries implied in important timber certification processes have lower deforestation levels.

Keywords: resource curse, growth, tropical forest, deforestation

JEL Classification: C21, O13, Q33

Suggested Citation

Delacote, Philippe and Damette, Olivier, The Environmental Resource Curse Hypothesis: The Forest Case (2009). Cahier du LEF No. 2009-04, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1016807 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1016807

Philippe Delacote (Contact Author)

LEF-ENGREF-INRA ( email )

14 rue Girardet
Nancy, 54042
France

Olivier Damette

University Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC) ( email )

61 avenue du General de Gaulle
Creteil cedex, 94010
France

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
301
Abstract Views
4,305
Rank
184,236
PlumX Metrics