Abstract
This paper analyzes the role of endogenous property rights in the development of an open resource-based economy. I incorporate renewable resources and endogenous decisions on property rights into a convex growth model with the formal and informal sectors. I find that along the transition path to steady state, property rights enforcement is not constant but improves with time as well as involves intermediate property rights specification (between open access and perfect property rights). International trade and labor market are driving these endogenous changes. Property rights improve with favorable terms of trade when the economy exports resource services and stronger property rights help maintain the resource stock by deterring illegal harvest. This pushes labor away from the informal harvest sector toward greater participation in the formal sector of the economy. In turn, more labor participation in the formal sector along with capital formation increase the country’s output and consumption. Overall, with an open economy and well-functioning institutions, renewable resources have a positive impact on economic growth.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barrett B, Arcese P (1998) Wildlife harvest in integrated conservation and development projects: Linking harvest to household demand, agricultural production, and environmental shocks in the Serengeti. Land Econ 74(4): 449–465
Becker GS (1965) A theory of the allocation of time. Econ J 75((299): 493–517
Bergoeing R, Kehoe PJ, Kehoe TJ, Soto R (2002) A decade lost and found: Mexico and Chile in the 1980s. Rev Econ Dyn 5: 166–205
Brander JA, Taylor MS (1997) International trade and open-access renewable resources: the small open economy case. Can J Econ 30(3): 526–552
Bulte EH, Barbier EB (2005) Trade and renewable resources in a second best world: an overview. Environ Resour Econ 30: 423–463
Central Intelligence Agency (2004) The world factbook http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tz.html#top. Cited April 2007
Conrad J, Clark C (1987) Natural resource economics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Cooley TF, Prescott EC (1995) Economic growth and business cycles. In: Cooley TF (eds) Frontiers of business cycle research. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 1–38
Copeland BR (1991) Tourism, welfare and de-industrialization in a small open economy. Economica 58(232): 515–529
Copeland BR, Taylor MS (2009) Trade, tragedy, and the commons. Am Econ Rev 99(3): 725–749
de Meza D, Gould JR (1992) The social efficiency of private decisions to enforce property rights. J Polit Econ 100(3): 561–580
Flaaten O, Schulz CE (2010) Triple win for trade in renewable resource goods by use of export taxes. Ecol Econ 69: 1076–1082
Gollin D (2002) Getting income shares right. J Polit Econ 110(2): 458–474
Gollin D, Parente SL, Rogerson R (2004) Farm work, home work and nternational productivity differences. Rev Econ Dyn 7: 827–850
Hawkins DE, Lamoureux K (2001) Global growth and magnitude of ecotourism. In: Weaver DB (ed) The Encyclopedia of Ecotourism
Kehoe TJ, Ruhl KJ (2008) Are shocks to the terms of trade shocks to productivity?. Rev Econ Dynam 11: 804–819
National Bureau of Statistics of Tanzania (2007) Population and housing census 2002, national profile statistical tables http://www.nbs.go.tz/NationalProfile/NationalProfileTables.htm. Cited April 2007
National Bureau of Statistics of Tanzania, Bank of Tanzania, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Immigration Department, and Zanzibar Commission for Tourism (2006) Tanzania tourism sector survey, The 2004 International Visitors’ Exit Survey Report
Parente SL, Rogerson R, Wright R (2000) Homework in development economics: household production and the wealth of nations. J Polit Econ 108(4): 680–687
Penn World Tables PWT 6.2. (2006) By Heston A, Summers R and Aten B, Penn World Table Version 6.2, Center for International Comparisons of Production, Income and Prices at the University of Pennsylvania, September 2006
Sinclair ARE (1979) Dynamics of the Serengeti ecosystem: process and pattern. In: Sinclair ARE, Norton-Griffiths M (eds) Serengeti: dynamics of an ecosystem. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 1–30
Tajibaeva LS (2007) Growth of an integrated economy of humans and renewable biological resources. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Minnesota
The World Bank (2008) The World Development Indicators
The World Bank and Government of the United Republic of Tanzania (2002) Tanzania at the turn of the century, a world bank country study
United Nations: (1994) National accounts statistics: main aggregates and detailed tables, parts I and II. U.N. Pub. Div, New York
United Nations: (2006) National accounts statistics: main aggregates and detailed tables, parts I and II. U.N. Pub. Div, New York
World Tourism Organization (2007) In the United States Travel Association at http://www.tia.org/researchpubs/itnl_tourism_world.html. Cited June 2009
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tajibaeva, L.S. Property Rights, Renewable Resources and Economic Development. Environ Resource Econ 51, 23–41 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-011-9486-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-011-9486-6