The paths to rain forest destruction: crossnational patterns of tropical deforestation, 1975-90

Recently published, crossnational data on tropical deforestation vary in quality, but with appropriate safeguards they can be used to analyze the causes of tropical deforestation. We use these data to assess the major explanations for tropical deforestation during 1975–1990. One set of explanations, which we label frontier theory, identifies entrepreneurs, companies, and small farmers, working in concert, as the chief agents of deforestation. A second set of explanations, which we call immiserization theory, attributes most deforestation to expanding peasant populations who have few other economic opportunities and therefore decide to clear additional land for agriculture. The quantitative analysis suggests that frontier theory described deforestation in places with large forests and immiserization theory describes deforestation in plates with small forests. Policies to reduce deforestation should vary in their effectiveness depending on which of these two processes predominates in a place.