Rural Perspectives in a Global Economy

Abstract

My dissertation is grounded in policy issues that affect rural economic growth in emerging markets. In a global economic framework, where growth and redistribution are par for the course, policies promoting rural development deserve particular attention. In the first two chapters, I explore how property rights establishment affects trade, deforestation and agricultural productivity in the Brazilian Amazon. My third chapter presents substantial evidence that crises propagate differently across rural versus urban areas in Latin America.