Ethanol Production, Food and Forests

Saraly Andrade de Sa (), Charles Palmer () and Stefanie Engel

No 21, Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Hannover 2010 from Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates the direct and indirect impacts of ethanol production on land use, deforestation and food production. A partial equilibrium model of a national economy with two sectors and two regions, one of which includes a residual forest, is developed. It analyses how an exogenous increase in the ethanol price affects input allocation (land and labor) between sectors (energy crop and food). Three potential effects are identified. First, the standard and well-documented effect of direct land competition between rival uses increases deforestation and decreases food production. Second, an indirect displacement of food production across regions, provoked by a shift in the price of food, increases deforestation and reduces the total output of the food sector. Finally, labor mobility between sectors and regions tends to decrease food production but also deforestation. The overall impact of ethanol production on forest conversion is ambiguous, providing a number of interesting pointers to further, empirical research.

Keywords: Ethanol; Deforestation; Indirect impacts; Land use; Migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q11 Q24 Q42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-ene
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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/39978/1/286_andrade.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Ethanol Production, Food and Forests (2012)
Working Paper: Ethanol production, food and forests (2010)
Working Paper: Ethanol Production, Food and Forests (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:gdec10:21

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