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Conservation Contracts and Political Regimes

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  • Bård Harstad
  • Torben K. Mideksa
Abstract
This article provides a flexible model of resource extraction, such as deforestation, and derives the optimal conservation contract. When property rights are “strong” and districts are in charge of extracting their own resources to get revenues, conservation in one district benefits the others since the reduced supply raises the sales price. A central authority would internalize this positive externality and thus conserve more. When property rights are instead weak and extraction is illegal or costly control, conservation in one district increases the price and thus the profit from illegally depleting the resource in the other districts. The externality from conservation is then negative, and centralization would lead to less conservation. We also derive the optimal conservation contract, and we explain when the principal, who values conservation, benefits from contracting with the districts directly even when contracting with a central authority would have led to more conservation, and vice versa.

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  • Bård Harstad & Torben K. Mideksa, 2017. "Conservation Contracts and Political Regimes," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1708-1734.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:84:y:2017:i:4:p:1708-1734.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/restud/rdx014
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    2. Albuquerque Sant'Anna, André & Costa, Lucas, 2021. "Environmental regulation and bail outs under weak state capacity: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon11The authors gratefully acknowledge Antonio Ambrózio, Juliano Assunção, Arthur Bragança, Filipe ," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    3. Harding, Torfinn & Herzberg, Julika & Kuralbayeva, Karlygash, 2021. "Commodity prices and robust environmental regulation: Evidence from deforestation in Brazil," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    4. Bård Harstad, 2023. "The Conservation Multiplier," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(7), pages 1731-1771.
    5. Nicolas Querou, 2018. "Interacting collective action problems in the commons," Working Papers hal-02790606, HAL.
    6. François Bareille & Matteo Zavalloni, 2020. "Decentralisation of agri-environmental policy design," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 47(4), pages 1502-1530.
    7. García, Jorge H. & Orlov, Anton & Aaheim, Asbjørn, 2018. "Negative leakage: The key role of forest management regimes," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 8-13.
    8. Strand, Jon, 2017. "Modeling the marginal value of rainforest losses: A dynamic value function approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 322-329.
    9. Bareille, François & Wolfersberger, Julien & Zavalloni, Matteo, 2023. "Institutions and conservation: The case of protected areas," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    10. Vehviläinen, Iivo, 2023. "Greed is good? Of equilibrium impacts in environmental regulation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    11. Harstad, Bård, 2016. "The market for conservation and other hostages," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 124-151.
    12. Costa, Francisco J M & Szerman, Dimitri & Assunção, Juliano, 2024. "The Environmental Costs of Political Interference: Evidence from Power Plants in the Amazon," SocArXiv 6y7vk, Center for Open Science.
    13. Bård Harstad, 2022. "Trade, Trees, and Contingent Trade Agreements," CESifo Working Paper Series 9596, CESifo.
    14. Bård Harstad, 2020. "Trade and Trees: How Trade Agreements Can Motivate Conservation Instead of Depletion," CESifo Working Paper Series 8569, CESifo.
    15. Strand, Jon, 2018. "Forest Preservation Under REDD+ Schemes With Incentives Distortions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 343-348.
    16. Balboni, Clare & Berman, Aaron & Burgess, Robin & Olken, Benjamin A., 2023. "The economics of tropical deforestation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120074, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Deforestation; Resource extraction; Conservation; Contracts; Crime displacement; Centralization; Decentralization; Climate change; REDD; PES;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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