Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation
Recent work has suggested that tropical forest and savanna represent alternative stable states, which are subject to drastic switches at tipping points, in response to changes in rainfall patterns and other drivers. Deforestation cost studies have ignored the likelihood and possible economic impact...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier BV
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126850 |
| _version_ | 1826209693360455680 |
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| author | Franklin, Sergio L. Pindyck, Robert S |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Franklin, Sergio L. Pindyck, Robert S |
| author_sort | Franklin, Sergio L. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Recent work has suggested that tropical forest and savanna represent alternative stable states, which are subject to drastic switches at tipping points, in response to changes in rainfall patterns and other drivers. Deforestation cost studies have ignored the likelihood and possible economic impact of a forest-savanna critical transition, therefore underestimating the true social cost of deforestation. We explore the implications of a forest-savanna critical transition and propose an alternative framework for calculating the economic value of a standing tropical forest. Our framework is based on an average cost method, as opposed to currently used marginal cost methods, for the design of optimal land-use policy or payments for ecosystem services. We apply this framework to the calculation of the social cost of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:27:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/126850 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:27:19Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Elsevier BV |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1268502022-10-01T21:25:23Z Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation Franklin, Sergio L. Pindyck, Robert S Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Recent work has suggested that tropical forest and savanna represent alternative stable states, which are subject to drastic switches at tipping points, in response to changes in rainfall patterns and other drivers. Deforestation cost studies have ignored the likelihood and possible economic impact of a forest-savanna critical transition, therefore underestimating the true social cost of deforestation. We explore the implications of a forest-savanna critical transition and propose an alternative framework for calculating the economic value of a standing tropical forest. Our framework is based on an average cost method, as opposed to currently used marginal cost methods, for the design of optimal land-use policy or payments for ecosystem services. We apply this framework to the calculation of the social cost of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. 2020-08-31T21:12:45Z 2020-08-31T21:12:45Z 2018-11 2018-04 2019-09-26T14:38:27Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0921-8009 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126850 Franklin, Sergio L., Jr. and Robert S. Pindyck. "Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation." Ecological Economics 153 (November 2018): 161-171 © 2018 Elsevier B.V. en http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.06.003 Ecological Economics Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier BV NBER |
| spellingShingle | Franklin, Sergio L. Pindyck, Robert S Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation |
| title | Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation |
| title_full | Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation |
| title_fullStr | Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation |
| title_short | Tropical Forests, Tipping Points, and the Social Cost of Deforestation |
| title_sort | tropical forests tipping points and the social cost of deforestation |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126850 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT franklinsergiol tropicalforeststippingpointsandthesocialcostofdeforestation AT pindyckroberts tropicalforeststippingpointsandthesocialcostofdeforestation |