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

Jennifer M. Alix-Garcia, Katharine Sims and Patricia Yanez-Pagans

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2015, vol. 7, issue 4, 1-40

Abstract: 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. (JEL I32, I38, O13, O15, Q23, Q28, Q56)

JEL-codes: I32 I38 O13 O15 Q23 Q28 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20130139
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (87)

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