TY - JOUR
T1 - Land and poverty
T2 - The role of soil fertility and vegetation quality in poverty reduction
AU - Heger, Martin Philipp
AU - Zens, Gregor
AU - Bangalore, Mook
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - The debate on the land-poverty nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify the causal dynamics. We use a unique global panel dataset that links survey and census derived poverty data with measures of land ecosystems at the subnational level. Rainfall is used to overcome the endogeneity in the land-poverty relationship in an instrumental variable approach. This is the first global study using quasi-experimental methods to uncover the degree to which land improvements matter for poverty reduction. We draw three main conclusions. First, land improvements are important for poverty reduction in rural areas and particularly so for Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, land improvements are pro-poor: poorer areas see larger poverty alleviation effects due to improvements in land. Finally, irrigation plays a major role in breaking the link between bad weather and negative impacts on the poor through reduced vegetation growth and soil fertility.
AB - The debate on the land-poverty nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify the causal dynamics. We use a unique global panel dataset that links survey and census derived poverty data with measures of land ecosystems at the subnational level. Rainfall is used to overcome the endogeneity in the land-poverty relationship in an instrumental variable approach. This is the first global study using quasi-experimental methods to uncover the degree to which land improvements matter for poverty reduction. We draw three main conclusions. First, land improvements are important for poverty reduction in rural areas and particularly so for Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, land improvements are pro-poor: poorer areas see larger poverty alleviation effects due to improvements in land. Finally, irrigation plays a major role in breaking the link between bad weather and negative impacts on the poor through reduced vegetation growth and soil fertility.
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U2 - 10.1017/S1355770X20000066
DO - 10.1017/S1355770X20000066
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85082702571
SN - 1355-770X
VL - 25
SP - 315
EP - 333
JO - Environment and Development Economics
JF - Environment and Development Economics
IS - 4
ER -