Debt, Structural Adjustment and Deforestation: A Cross-National Study

Abstract

We present cross-national

China's ascent and Africa's environment

“…These studies use quantitative-statistical analyses, short time frames and focus strongly on deforestation and climate change (e.g. Burns et al, 2003;Roberts and Grimes, 2002;Roberts and Parks, 2007;Rice, 2007;Shandra et al, 2008;Jorgenson and Kick, 2003;Jorgenson and Clark, 2010;Prew, 2010). The two approaches converge in their focus on explaining environmental destruction by the nature of the world capitalist system and inequalities between dominant and peripheral states.…”

Governance, agricultural intensification, and land sparing in tropical South America

“…Among the various socioeconomic factors, those that most correlate with agricultural expansion include crop prices and production costs (6), the need to generate foreign exchange earnings to service external debt (21), per capita gross domestic product (GDP) (22) and population (4,5).…”

“…All these factors have been shown to have a significant effect on agricultural expansion (21,22,40). Agricultural intensification is quantified by considering the value of agricultural output (at constant prices) per hectare of agricultural land.…”

Choking on Structural Adjustment: Dependency and Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution in Developing Countries

“…Although structural adjustment loans are designed to resolve the balance-of-payment issues by rescheduling loan payments and renegotiating loan terms (Babb, 2005), many nations continue to remain entrenched in debt or have been issued new loans as a part of the structural adjustment program (McMichael, 2012). A number of comparative studies demonstrate that structural adjustment policies are linked to negative health, social, environmental, and economic outcomes (e.g., Austin, 2015;Bradshaw & Huang, 1991;Coburn, Restivo, & Shandra, 2015;Maynard, Shircliff, & Restivo, 2012;Mohan, 2001;Pandolfelli & Shandra, 2013;Pandolfelli et al, 2014;Shandra et al, 2011;Shandra, Shor, Maynard, & London, 2008). For example, Pandolfelli and colleagues (2014) find that IMF conditionality contributes to maternal mortality by cutting government funds to healthcare and hospitals, leaving women vulnerable to diseases that complicate pregnancy and increase maternal mortality.…”