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PLANEJAMENTO E POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS - PPP
Nº 18 (dezembro/98)
A) Technology, Climate Change, Productivity and Land Use in Brazilian Agriculture
R.E. EVENSON
DENISARD C.O. ALVES
ABSTRACT
The Ricardian model of climate change impacts is extended to include technological services from private and public agricultural research programs and climate change impacts on land use. The extended model is estimated for Brazil and the climate-land value, climate-land use, the technology-land value and the technology-land use linkages estimates are used to simulate both climate change and technology service impacts. Two sets of implications for policy emerge from the estimates of climate and technological change for Brazilian agriculture. The first set is indirect regarding the urgency and importance of policies designed to slow climate change. The second set is direct regarding policies to compensate for and ameliorate climate change.
Artigo completo em formato Winzip (6,09 mb)
B) The Valuation of Health Impacts in Developing Countries
ANIL MARKANDYA
ABSTRACT
Valuing the health impacts in money terms can provide an important aid to the decision-maker in setting priorities for investments that improve the quality of life. In many developing countries, however, a shortage of data often make the estimation of these impacts not practicable in the time available. This paper, after providing the conceptual basis for these valuations, discusses how data and functions from other sources can be transferred to the site and country in question with specific examples for developing countries.
Artigo completo em formato Word (742 kb)
C) Deforestation, Land Degradation and Rural Poverty in Latin America:
Examining the Evidence
EDWARD B BARBIER
ABSTRACT
The following paper examines aggregate evidence of a link between rural poverty, land degradation and deforestation in Latin America. Overall trends in land degradation and deforestation are discussed, as well as the geographical 'location' of the rural poor. The paper also compares and contrasts three statistical analyses of the factors influencing deforestation across the region, and finds evidence of potential rural poverty-resource degradation linkages given the negative relationship between income per capita as well as agricultural yields and deforestation, as well as the positive relationship between rural population density and forest clearance. However, policies aimed at increasing economic growth are not sufficient on their own to reverse the rural poverty-resource degradation linkage in Latin America. Instead, these need to be supported by more targeted policies and investments to raise the comparative returns to existing agricultural lands, improve the access of poor rural households to land and credit markets, extend key infrastructure, extension and marketing services to the rural poor, and remove tax and pricing distortions that benefit mainly wealthier farmers and landowners.
Artigo completo no formato Word (353 kb)
D) Perverse Subsidies, International Trade and the Environment
CEES VAN BEERS and ANDRÉ DE MOOR
ABSTRACT
The classic economic theory of international trade evaluates free trade favorably as it is considered to make full or optimal use of existing comparative advantages. Another branch of econo-mics, welfare theory, teaches us that international trade governed by prices that do not take external effects into account, will only lead to a suboptimal international allocation of activities and commodities, and an associated suboptimal international income distribution. Against this background the relationship between international trade and environmental policy will be examined in this paper. The discussion whether trade measures can fulfill a useful role as either a replacement of, or a complement to, environmental measures has become a fuzzy one as it is very hard to determine what "correct" prices are for two reasons. In the first place, prices of many internationally traded commodities are not correct because external environmental effects are not incorporated. Secondly, many prices are distorted towards the "private market determined competitive price" because of subsidies. In this paper we analyze the relationship between perverse subsidies and international trade and hence on environmental degradation. Many of the global $950 billion in government subsidies work out perversely. In particular producer subsidies turn out trade distorting and environmentally harmful.
With the aim to eliminate or at least to reduce these subsidies, some brief policy proposals are presented.
Artigo completo no formato Word (144 kb)
E) Economic Incentives and Forest Concessions in Brazil*
Claudio Ferraz
Ronaldo Seroa da Motta
ABSTRACT
This study is an attempt to draw attention to some economic issues that are in general not explicitly mentioned in the literature and are crucial for the attainment of the objective proposed by the Brazilian government in promoting sustainable logging extraction in concessional terms in National Forest units in the Amazon. Departing from a careful analysis of the failures occurred in other countries' similar experiences and accounting for institutional and economic barriers found in the region, we have tried to point out effective economic incentives to counteract deforestation trends and open room for making sustainable logging a viable alternative for the use of forestland in the Amazon.
Artigo completo em formato Word (169 kb)
F) Economic Growth, the Environment and welfare: are they compatible?
HANS OPSCHOOR,
ABSTRACT:
In this article several aspects of the issue of consistency or compatibility between human welfare, economic growth and environmental sustainability are addressed. In Section 1 these and related concept are defined and related to one another and some alternative measures of welfare and development are discussed and compared. Section 2 reviews empirical results of work on the link between economic growth and environmental impacts for different types of pollution and resource use, and for different regions. It is found that one cannot simply expect economic growth to become ecologically sustainable on the strength of mechanisms endogenous to the economic process. Section 3 discuss aspects of the data and methods used in the EKC-studies reviewed in 2, and take some of the results a bit further. Conclusions on EKCs are drawn and broad strategies towards more sustainable economic growth are suggested.
Artigo completo em formato Word (312 kb)
G) Valuing Statistical Lives
DAVID PEARCE
ABSTRACT
Cost-benefit studies, in both developed and developing countries, are increasingly being applied to environmental policies and to policies that affect the environment. In many cases, the impacts on human health dominate. Moreover, impacts on premature mortality are playing a major role in the assessment of policy benefits. The economic valuation of premature mortality revolves round the concept of the 'value of a statistical life' (VOSL) which is an aggregated form of individuals' willingness to pay to reduce risks. Hence, getting this particular value right is of major importance to cost-benefit assessment. Yet there are numerous disputes over the VOSL. One major concern relates to the likelihood that some environmental policy will alter life expectancy among older groups only, saving perhaps a few months of life. Should these gains be valued in the same way as gains to younger persons? This paper reviews the evidence and suggests that VOSL remains the correct concept for valuing life expectancy changes.
Artigo completo em formato Word (534 kb)
H) Economic Instruments for Waste Management in Brazil
RONALDO SEROA DA MOTTA
DAIANE ELY SAYAGO
ABSTRACT
This present proposals to introduce pricing mechanisms in policy related to solid waste management in the activities of generation and recycling of package waste in Brazil based on estimates of the social benefit of recycling in Brazil. These proposals are opportunities to adopt fiscal devices already in place and under discussion in law bills to enhance efficiency and equity performance in the package and recycling markets in the country.
Artigo completo em formato Word (154 kb)
I) Public Policies and Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
CARLOS EDUARDO FRICKMANN YOUNG
ABSTRACT:
The question of land tenure is a major issue in the development debate in Latin America. Recently, one new dimension has been added to the discussion with the increasing concern with environmental issues: the link between rural migration and deforestation. This paper analyses this problem, focusing on the Brazilian Amazon experience. The first part briefly reviews past and present policies that encouraged migration to the region (according to the slogan "peopless" land to "landless" people) as a way to avoid proper agrarian reforms. The role of economic policies in this process is highlighted, particularly the connection with structural adjustment objectives. The second part of the paper presents empirical results showing that, in the Brazilian case, policy-related variables are positively related to land clearing. The opportunity cost of labour (represented by rural wages) plays a major role in this process, affecting decisively the determination of how much land to be cleared. This establishes a link between deforestation and poverty: the lower the opportunity cost of labour, the higher is the incentive to deforest.
Artigo completo em formato Word (114 kb)
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