Modelling land use, deforestation, and policy: a hybrid optimisation-heterogeneous agent model with application to the Bolivian Amazon

Andersen, Lykke E., Groom, Ben ORCID: 0000-0003-0729-143X, Killick, Evan, Ledezma, Juan Carlos, Palmer, Charles ORCID: 0000-0002-1252-179X and Weinhold, Diana ORCID: 0000-0002-0002-9378 (2017) Modelling land use, deforestation, and policy: a hybrid optimisation-heterogeneous agent model with application to the Bolivian Amazon. Ecological Economics, 135. pp. 76-90. ISSN 0921-8009

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Abstract

We introduce a hybrid simulation model ('SimPachamama') designed to explore the complex socio-environmental trade-offs of alternative policy bundles and policy sequencing options for stemming deforestation and reducing poverty in tropical countries. Designed and calibrated to the initial conditions of a small forest village in rural Bolivia, the model consists of: (a) an optimising agricultural household module of heterogeneous agents that make individually optimal land-use decisions based on factor endowments and market conditions; (b) an encompassing general equilibrium ‘shell’ module that endogenously determines wages and links the agricultural labour market and rural-urban migration rates; and (c) a novel user-controlled policy-maker module that allows the user to make ‘real time’ choices over a variety of public and environmental policies that in turn impact land use, welfare, and migration. Over a 20-year simulation period the results highlight trade-offs between reductions in deforestation and improvements in household welfare that can only be overcome either when international REDD payments are offered or when decentralized deforestation taxes are implemented. The sequencing of policies plays a critical role in the determination of these results.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-econo...
Additional Information:	© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
Divisions:	Geography & Environment
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography
JEL classification:	Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation > Q23 - Forestry Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation > Q28 - Government Policy Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q56 - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounting; Environmental Equity R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R14 - Land Use Patterns
Date Deposited:	26 Jan 2017 11:44
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 04:25
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/69004

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