The super-rich and cropland expansion via direct investments in agriculture
Data files
Feb 28, 2020 version files 418.03 KB
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AL_Data.xlsx
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Codes.zip
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Data.zip
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Data4_R2_FDI.xlsx
Abstract
Cropland expansion represents an important cause of tropical deforestation, contributing to the loss of ecosystems’ functions. Flex-crops (e.g., oil palm, soy, sugar cane) account for an increasing share of cropland and contribute significantly to carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. Various forms of inequality have been shown to impact on agricultural expansion, yet the effect of wealth concentration among the super-rich is understudied. Here I show how, over the period 1991-2014, the large amount of wealth in the hands of high net worth individuals (HNWI) stimulated foreign direct investments in agriculture in Latin America and South-East Asia. This, in turn, drove the expansion of flex-crops areas. The combination of these two effects implies that, a 1% increase in the wealth of HNWI generated an expansion of the flex-crops area share of up to 2.4-10%. The results point to the urgency of addressing wealth inequality to protect the remaining forests.
Methods
The data were assembled from public databases.
Usage notes
IN THE CODES FOLDER:
The file Data4_R2_FDI.dta contains the data used for the FDI Analysis
The code for the main analysis based on Arellano-Bond DGMM Models 1.a - 1.h (Supplementary Table 5-6) is available in FDI_DGMM.do
The code for Arellano-Bond SGMM Models 3.a - 3.h (Supplementary Table 10-11) is available in FDI_SGMM.do
The code for the Arellano-Bond DGMM of Models 5.a - 5.h (Supplementary Table 14-15) is available in FDI_WT_DGMM.do
The code for the Arellano-Bond DGMM of Models 6.a - 6.h (Supplementary Table 16-17) is available in FDI_ACSI_DGMM.do
The code for the Arellano-Bond DGMM of Models 7.a - 7.h (Supplementary Table 18-19) is available in FDI_DI_DGMM.do
The code for the Arellano-Bond DGMM of Models 9.a - 9.h (Supplementary Table 21-22) is available in FDI_GDPPC_TAX_INFL_DGMM.do
The code for the two-way FE static and dynamic FDI models 10 - 11 (Supplementary Table 23-25) respectively are available in FDI_ACSI_Static&Dynamic_2wayFE.do
The file Data_AL.dta contains the data for the PFLEX Analysis
The code for the Arellano-Bond DGMM estimation of Models 2.a - 2.g (Supplementary Table 7-8) is available in FLEX_DGMM.do
The code for the Arellano-Bond DGMM estimation of Models 2.a - 2.g without one country at the time (Supplementary Table 9) is available in FLEX_NO_ONE_COUNTRY_DGMM.do
The code for the Arellano-Bond SGMM estimation of Models 4.a - 4.g (Supplementary Table 12-3) is available in FLEX_SGMM.do
The code for the 2SLS estimation of Models 8.a - 8.h (Supplementary Table 20) is available in FLEX_2SLS.do
IN THE DATA FOLDER:
DATA4_R2_FDI.csv contains the data (without metadata) used in the FDI Analysis
AL_data.csv contains the data (without metadata) used in the PFLEX Analysis
ADDITIONALLY:
DATA4_R2_FDI.xlsx contains the Excel format data (with metadata) used in the FDI Analysis
AL_Data.xlsx contains the Excel format data (with metadata) used in the PFLEX Analysis