Book Description

This thesis examines three environmental issues in developing countries. The first essay examines land fires in Indonesia that inflict severe air pollution-related damage on Southeast Asia annually. Conservative estimates of losses in 1997 alone were US$667 million for Indonesia (0.67% of GDP) and an additional US$12 million for Singapore. Fire incidence on various landholdings is examined using a new author-compiled database on satellite-based fire and rainfall data, land use maps, socioeconomic and geographical information. The essay finds that estates, large-scale industrial plantations that are rapidly expanding in the tropics, raise fire incidence beyond the 'natural' level (the fire incidence on conservation areas serves as a benchmark). In contrast, it finds no evidence that small landholdings, which are often blamed for fires, raise fire incidence. The government's ban on the use of clearance fires, as a result of weak enforcement, did not reduce fire incidence on estates. Alternative policy-levers that could potentially reduce these fires, such as lengthening the estates' leases to improve their property security, are found to be ineffective. The second essay examines whether education can potentially reduce households' agricultural-related forest clearance by increasing the returns to wage labor. It analyzes a unique survey of 649 indigenous households in protected areas in Bolivia's lowland forests. It finds that an additional year of education among household heads is associated with a reduction of 0.05 hectares or 4.3% of the annual mean household forest clearance, increased returns of 2.6% in wage labor and a 21 % increase in days worked in wage labor. Thus the 3-year average increase in education among the youngest cohorts is associated with potentially significant reduction in forest clearance in the study site, though further work is needed to establish causality. The third essay examines the pollution intensity of the NAFTA-related expansion in USMexican trade using new detailed measures of air, water, metal and toxic pollution intensities and injury rates at the 4-digit Standard Industrial Classification level. Based on pollution measures at this resolution, it does not find strong evidence of greater growth in the share of US net imports from Mexico in the more polluting or injurious industries.