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Intersectoral labor mobility and deforestation in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2012

Victor Owusu ,
K. Yerfi Fosu  and
Kees Burger
Victor Owusu
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness and Extension, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana. Tel: +233 24 2832330. Email: [email protected]
K. Yerfi Fosu
Affiliation:
University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. Email: [email protected]
Kees Burger
Affiliation:
Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper quantifies the effects of the determinants of intersectoral labor mobility and the effect of intersectoral labor mobility on deforestation in Ghana over the period 1970–2008. A cointegration and error correction modeling approach is employed. The empirical results show that labor mobility from the agricultural to the non-agricultural sector exerts negative effects on deforestation in Ghana in the long run and short run. Relative agricultural income exerts a significant negative effect on intersectoral labor mobility in the long run. Deforestation is influenced positively by population pressure, the price of fertilizer and rainfall, whereas access to irrigation infrastructure exerts a negative effect in the long run. In the short run, real producer prices of cocoa and maize exert significant positive effects on deforestation whereas access to irrigation infrastructure exerts a negative significant effect. Fruitful policy recommendations based on the empirical magnitudes and directions of these effects are made in this paper.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 17 , Issue 6 , December 2012 , pp. 741 - 762
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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