Monthly Archives: September 2024

Agricultural Productivity Growth and Deforestation in the Tropics

Access to EnergyRaphaël SoubeyranWorking papersComments Off on Agricultural Productivity Growth and Deforestation in the Tropics

We analyze the impact of agricultural productivity growth on tropical deforestation. Our dynamic model of forest-to-farmland, addressing the Jevons’ paradox and Borlaug hypothesis, predicts that rising agricultural productivity, reflected by declining fertilizer price growth, has an ambiguous effect on deforestation. Using tropical forest loss data (2000-2022) and fertilizer price variations, we find a negative correlation between fertilizer price growth and deforestation, particularly in regions with high market potential. Our results highlight that protected areas do not mitigate the adverse effects of fertilizer price growth on deforestation.

Power constraints and firm-level total factor productivity in developing countries

Alpha LyFinancial regulation and innovative financingPublicationsPublicationsResearch areaResearch FellowsComments Off on Power constraints and firm-level total factor productivity in developing countries

We analyze the effects of power constraints on manufacturing firms’ TFPR. Statistically, the power constraints treatment variable is not random for the firms. Power constraints negatively and significantly affect firm-level TFPR. Average productivity 11% lower for exposed firms compared to unexposed firms. The acquisition of backup generators or investment in R&D mitigates this effect.

Electrification or deforestation? Evidence from household practices in Côte d’Ivoire

Alpha LyFinancial regulation and innovative financingPublicationsPublicationsResearch areaResearch FellowsComments Off on Electrification or deforestation? Evidence from household practices in Côte d’Ivoire

This paper investigates the impact of electrification on household practices related to deforestation in Côte d’Ivoire, specifically focusing on the expansion of arable farms and the use of biomass fuels.  

Looking at the relationship between electrification and the expansion of arable farms inspired by Angelsen and studying  data from the latest four waves of the household Living Standards Measurement Surveys (1998, 2002, 2008, and 2015), we find that increased access to electricity significantly reduces both the average size of arable farms and the collection of firewood from forests. 

Economic policy efficiency and recovery in an open economy

How the increased trade openness and correspondingly higher marginal propensity to
import explains the lower efficiency of economic policy in the context of economic openness. Using an empirical stock-flow consistent model for the French economy (SFC FR), we analyze the macroeconomic impacts of these policies through a series of macroeconomic shocks.

Economic rationality, ecological rationality and the orientation issue

The economic agent was previously assumed to be distinct from its environment and that nothing was forcing him to act on it. With the ecological crisis, every agent appears to be inserted into an environment, which he modifies in an irreversible way without even having decided to do so. This changes in depth the way in which economics can represent the agent and the optimal action: it is rationality itself that is modified in what we call “ecological rationality”.