Who crops coca and why? The case of Colombian farmers

Marcela Ibáñez
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Marcela Ibáñez: Georg-August-University Göttingen

No 40, Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers from Courant Research Centre PEG

Abstract: Approximately 1.2% of Colombia’s GNP is spent every year on the war on drugs, but very little is known about coca farming decisions at the household level. In order to understand the decision to cultivate coca as well as that of the amount of land to use for its cultivation, we develop an extended version of the portfolio model of crime that considers the effects of behavioral norms and lack of options in the legal economy. The model is tested using data from an original survey with coca and non-coca farmers living in Putumayo, Colombia. We find that farmers react to economic incentives and hence eradication and substitution programs reduce coca cultivation. More interestingly, we find that coca cultivation decisions are explained by moral considerations as well as by the impossibility of making a living from legal forms of agriculture.

Keywords: Coca; Colombia; Portfolio Model of Crime; Norms of Behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 G11 K42 Z12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-08-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-lam
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:got:gotcrc:040

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