Projects
India
On this page you will find information regarding the project you selected. A summary of the project proposal can be found in the publications section at the bottom of the page.
Description
Title: Poverty and the Environment: Estimating the Effect of Natural Resource Availability on Household Incomes in Rural India Themes Water, Forest, Agriculture Methods Spatial Analysis, Regression Analysis
General Information
<p>Rural economies in poor countries such as India are largely biomass-based subsistence economies, in that the rural poor eke out a living from products obtained directly from their local environment. The poverty-environment relationship in such economies has mostly been treated as unidirectional, however, with income affecting, but not being affected by, natural resources. The reverse link, from environment to poverty, has been under-studied in the literature and current evidence for its importance is largely anecdotal. Our project will aim to quantify the extent to which the stock of natural resources (forests, grazing lands, and groundwater) available to rural households affects their income from agriculture and other productive activities. Our analysis will thus inform the policy debate on whether, and to what extent, donor agencies and state governments should focus on improving natural resource management as a means to alleviate poverty. A major emphasis of the study will be on how natural resource availability affects the household division of labor. It has become widely recognized in policy circles that closing the gender gap in access to income-generating activities is key to poverty alleviation in developing countries. Our project will aim to quantify the extent to which improving natural resource management can help close this gender gap, by reducing the time that women in particular spend on resource collection.</p><p><br>Project partners:</p><p><br></p>
Photos
Publications for this project
- Journal Article: Poverty and the Environment: Exploring the Relationship Between Household Incomes, Private Assets, and Natural Assets. In: Land Economics, In Press
- Journal Article: Disproving the Conventional Wisdom: Both Rich and Poor Depend on Natural Resources in Rural India. Resources. In: Resources for the Future, Washington DC.
- Journal Article: Poverty and Resource Dependence in Rural India. In: Ecological Economics
- Policy Brief 10 - Exploring relationships between household incomes, private assets, and natural assets in rural India
- PREM Working Paper 05-09 - Poverty and the Environment: Exploring the Relationship between Household Incomes, Private Assets, and Natural Assets
- Summary project #7: India
