@article{deAlmeida:197891, recid = {197891}, author = {de Almeida, Anna Luiza Ozorio}, title = {Debt Peonage and Over-Deforestation in the Amazon Frontier of Brazil}, address = {1992}, number = {997-2016-77937}, pages = {6}, year = {1992}, abstract = {This paper proposes that under the conditions typical of the Amazon frontier of Brazilabsence of a wage labour market and abundant supply of land-farm-family labour is a positive function of debt. This labour supply response, known as "debt peonage," provides for indirect management of farm labour by local merchants via the crop lien mechanism. A microeconomic model of the family farm shows that debt-labour leads to labour-intensive farming but land-extensive farming leads to over-deforestation. Correct colonization policy should then provide for market structures that reduce indebtedness and deforestation. This would also reduce the environmental consequences of settlement in the Amazon.}, url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/197891}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.197891}, }