| By: |
Urvashi Narain (Resources for the Future, Washington DC);
Shreekant Gupta (Delhi School of Economics);
Klaas vant Veld (University of Wyoming, Laramie) |
| Abstract: |
Using purpose-collected survey data from 535 households in 60 different
villages of the Jhabua district of India, this paper investigates the extent
to which rural households depend on common-pool natural resources for their
daily livelihood. Previous studies have found that resource dependence--
defined as the fraction of total income derived from common-pool
resources--strongly decreases with income. Our study uncovers a more complex
relationship. Firstly, for the subsample of households that use positive
amounts of resources, we find that dependence follows a U-shaped relationship
with income, declining at first but then increasing. Secondly, we find that
the probability of being in the subsample of common-pool resource users
follows an inverse U-shaped relationship with income - the poorest and richest
households are less likely to collect resources than those with intermediate
incomes. Resource use by the rich is therefore bimodal - either very high
or--for the very rich households--zero. Thirdly, we find that resource
dependence increases at all income levels with an increase in the level of
common-pool biomass availability. The combination of these results suggests
that the quality of natural resources matters to a larger share of the rural
population than had previously been believed, common-pool resources contribute
a significant fraction of the income not just of the desperately poor, but
also of the relatively rich. |
| Keywords: |
India, Madhya Pradesh, poverty, environment, common-pool natural resources,rural households |
| JEL: |
Q2 D31 Q12 Q56 O13 I32 |
| Date: |
2005–04 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cde:cdewps:134&r=env |