Suchergebnisse

Dependency theory argues that due to unequal economic relationships, including exports, multinational corporations, and loans from multilateral lending institutions, high-income nations exploit the labor and resources of low- and middle-income nations. We extend this line of reasoning to the United States Export–Import Bank, as it has recently come under scrutiny for its lending in the forestry sector of low- and middle-income nations. Although this concern has been raised, we are not aware of any cross-national research that empirically evaluates if their investments adversely impact forests. Therefore, we examine the impact of the United States Export–Import Bank lending in the forestry sector on forest loss. Using a two-stage instrumental variable regression model to account for possible donor selection bias as well as ordinary least squares regression to analyze data for 78 low- and middle-income nations, we find that export credit agency financing is related to increased forest loss from 2001 to 2014. Our findings are consistent with dependency theory ideas that economic linkages with high-income nations increase forest loss in low- and middle-income nations.

AbstractWe test the hypothesis from the theory of ecologically unequal exchange that agricultural exports to China are related to increased forest loss in low‐ and middle‐income nations exporting to it. We do so by analyzing data for 75 low‐ and middle‐income nations using ordinary least squares regression. We find support for our hypothesis that flows of agricultural exports from low‐ and middle‐income nations to China are related to increased forest loss in exporting nations. We also find that a country's total agricultural exports, proximity of forest to infrastructure, and protected areas tend to increase forest loss.

The theory and empirical research on ecologically unequal exchange serves as the starting point for this study. We expand the research frontier it in a novel way by applying the theory to China and empirically testing if forestry export flows from low-and middle-income nations to China are related to increased forest loss in the exporting nations. In doing so, we analyze data for 75 low-and middle-income nations using ordinary least squares regression and find support for our main hypothesis.

On the one hand, previous research argues that growth in rural populations leads to forest loss from clearing trees to make room for the growing population and their farming needs. On the other hand, research is also concerned with how deforestation drives people out of rural areas, leading to overurbanization. From this work, it is clear that the movement of people has an important relationship to forest loss, but it is less clear what the autonomy of people is in this process. Put differently, more focus has been put on state-level economic and environmental factors than political factors when considering the impact of domestic migration on forest loss. Although there has been substantial work on how political factors, like democracy, impact forest loss, there is less research on how political rights, like freedom of domestic movement, may impact forest loss. To build on this research, we test the impact of freedom of domestic movement and democracy on forest loss from 2001 to 2014 for a sample of 107 low- and middle-income nations. We find support for the idea that having more freedom of movement decreases forest loss in more democratic nations compared to less democratic nations. We also find that both rural and urban population growth, among others, is associated with higher levels of forest loss. Together, our findings suggest that the freedom of domestic movement should be taken into consideration in addition to population growth from actual domestic movement when researching forest loss.

AbstractIntroductionWe draw on social contract theory and resource curse literatures to assess the relationship between government revenue composition and forest loss in low‐ and middle‐income nations that collect higher levels of revenues from a broad base of individuals and companies should have less forest loss.MethodsWe use two‐stage instrumental variable regression models to test how a government's revenue source impacts forest loss for a sample of 83 low‐ and middle‐income nations.ResultsWe find support that low‐ and middle‐income nations that collect more revenue from broad‐based taxes tend to have less forest loss.ConclusionWe move the cross‐national research frontier forward by applying insights from the fiscal contract and resource curse literatures to forest loss. We find that a government's revenue source is related to forest loss with low‐ and middle‐income nations that rely more on broad‐based taxes having lower levels of forest loss than revenues collected from other sources including natural resource rents and foreign aid.

AbstractWe review the world society approach to explaining macrohistorical change generally and as it relates to the natural environment specifically. Our review includes work describing the rise of the environmental world society as well as empirical evidence of the consequences of national ties to world society for policy adoption, practices, and individual attitudes at the national level. Additionally, we suggest the application of world society theory to state and substate structures. Throughout the review, we situate the world society literature in relationship to work in the fields of cross‐national comparative and environmental sociology from a variety of other perspectives. We take a forward‐looking approach to our review of theoretical and empirical work in the field and consider the implications for normative change and resistance to prevailing world cultural norms. We conclude with a discussion of the resurgence of nationalism especially as it relates to antienvironmentalism.

A recent cross-national article by Sommer, Restivo, and Shandra finds that wood exports to India from peripheral nations are related to levels of forest loss in the peripheral nations. While it suggests new insights into how semi-peripheral nations engage in ecologically unequal exchange, we contend this finding is incomplete and offers only a partial explanation of forest loss. We draw on Evans's idea of a "triple alliance" to argue that in an effort to promote industrialization, repressive nations in the periphery try to create a "good business climate" for foreign firms by offering investors economic incentives, regulatory concessions, and (imposed) political stability. Thus we hypothesize that greater wood exports to India are related to forest loss in peripheral nations with worse repression. We find support for this hypothesis by regressing data on 67 peripheral nations.

We draw on the theory of organized hypocrisy and examine how different forms of lending by the African Development Bank affect maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. We do so by using a two-way fixed effects model for a sample of 33 Sub-Saharan African nations from 1990 to 2010. We find that the bank's structural adjustment lending in the health sector is associated with increased maternal mortality, and its reproductive health investment lending is associated with decreased maternal mortality, consistent with the organized hypocrisy approach. These findings remain stable and consistent even when controlling for World Bank lending and other relevant control variables. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for global health and development.

For several decades, national environmental framework laws have come into existence to define its citizens' environmental rights and duties, as well as express how the government will manage and protect the environment. However, previous research has not considered how a nation's highest form of law promising environmental protection and management conveys its role or supports relevant parties. To fill this gap, we do a narrative analysis to see what themes emerged in 44 national environmental framework laws across the world. The main themes are (1) Rights and responsibilities of citizens and corporations, (2) Rights of the natural environment, (3) Environmental knowledge, (4) Governing the natural environment, and (5) External influences. Overall, we argue that the narratives we observed in the national environmental framework laws helps shape and reify the existing human domination of the natural environment for our own benefit and survival under the guise of protection.