Journal Articles

Patterns of frontier development: a dynamic model of resource extraction in the Brazilian Amazon

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Developing countries are known to exploit their resource frontier to achieve growth objectives and reduce poverty. This can lead to long-term positive outcomes or – if resource exploitation is unsustainable – lose–lose outcomes that leave populations and ecosystems worse off. This paper introduces a dynamic model of resource exploitation to explain how regions may succumb to, avoid or escape this negative outcome. The theoretical model characterizes a frontier community that uses soil as an input into agricultural production. The model shows that there may be a critical point in the soil stock that determines whether agricultural activities lead to sustainable development or a collapse in local income. This suggests that, in the event of a resource collapse, temporary adjustments to the system may permanently rehabilitate the resource base and change a community's development pattern. Calibration of the model to several frontier states of the Brazilian Amazon points toward an overall outcome of steady development.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Environment and Development Economics

Call Number

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Publisher

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press., 2016

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

1355770X

Classification

NONE

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Volume 21 - Issue 3 - June 2016, pp. 350-370

Subject(s)

Developing countries
Resources
frontrier community
Brazilia

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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