Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/45313 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Ruhr Economic Papers No. 242
Publisher: 
Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI), Essen
Abstract: 
This article investigates the behavioral drivers of pasture creation and associated implications for deforestation in a 22,000 km2 agricultural frontier spanning the base of Mexico's southern Yucatán. After developing a theoretical model that highlights the role of social networks and information spillovers with respect to the decision to begin cattle ranching, we use household data to estimate an econometric duration model of the determinants of pasture creation. Although pasture fits well with the typical household's resource constraints, its continued expansion contributes to a hollow frontier dynamic in which the spread of low-value cattle ranching coincides with decreasing population.
Subjects: 
pasture creation
information spillovers
duration analysis
farm households
Mexico
JEL: 
Q15
R22
ISBN: 
978-3-86788-278-1
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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