The Andean-Amazonian and Mesoamerican Bioeconomy: A new paradigm for productivity and well-being

Jorge Leon Quiroga-Canaviri, C. Zúniga-González (), Carlos Ricardo Menéndez Gámiz, Adelfa Patricia Colón-García and Ruth Maria Cruz Puerto

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 6, 1-1

Abstract: Traditional Total Factor Productivity (TFP) metrics often overlook biophysical limits and the depletion of natural capital. This study proposes an alternative paradigm: the Andean-Amazonian Bioeconomy (AAB), which integrates Georgescu-Roegen’s Law of Entropy and ancestral knowledge into an expanded production function. By applying the Malmquist Productivity Index and a Fixed Effects (FE) panel data model, we analyzed a dataset (1995–2024) from six Latin American countries. This approach utilizes the Human Development Index (HDI) as the primary proxy for social welfare. The methodology addresses country heterogeneity and multicollinearity, significantly enhancing the model’s explanatory power to an Adjusted R2 of 0.695. Our findings reveal a ‘Biocultural Paradox’: where conservation, often viewed as a cost by traditional income-based metric, emerges as vital investment. Our model demonstrate that the preservation of the biocultural fund- represented here as Biocultural Savings [S]- is a positive and highly significant predictor of social well-being (β = 0.685, p

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0345710

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0345710

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