Only One Tree from Each Seed? Environmental Effectiveness and Poverty Alleviation in Mexico's Payments for Ecosystem Services Program

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Alix-Garcia, Jennifer M.; Sims, Katharine R. E.; Yanez-Pagans, Patricia
• 署名单位: University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; Amherst College; Inter-American Development Bank
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20130139
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 1-40
• 关键词: liquidity constraints; hydrological services; designing payments; matching methods; ECONOMIC-GROWTH; costa-rica; deforestation; CONSERVATION; policies; forests

摘要

Environmental conditional cash transfers are popular but their impacts are not well understood. We evaluate land cover and wealth impacts of a federal program that pays landowners for protecting forest. Panel data for program beneficiaries and rejected applicants allow us to control for fixed differences and time trends affecting both groups. We find the program reduces the expected land cover loss by 40-51 percent and generates small but positive poverty alleviation. Environmental gains are higher where poverty is low while household gains are higher where deforestation risk is low, illustrating the difficulty of meeting multiple policy goals with one tool.