A Study On The Effect Of North-South Trade And Property Rights On Ecological Resources In Developing Countries

Ecological resources are the survival material basis of mankind and one of fundamental input factors of modern economic growth. For most developing countries, the starting of industrialization process were relatively late, but within latest three decades, their economy began to grow rapidly. Correspondingly, the consumption of ecological resources had increased unprecedentedly. As a result, the ecological resources base had been weakened gradually and emerged the trend of impoverishment. This problem on ecological resources is increasingly becoming a restraining factor of social and economic progress in developing countries.Most developing countries share two similar features:one of them is along with the promotion of worldwide economy integration, developing countries had carried out various levels of trade liberalization reform, their trade barriers had decreased significantly and the international trade with developed countries had increased rapidly. The another one is their institutions were backward, especially the property rights on ecological resources, showed some attributes of lower property rights enforcement, undefined property ownership and imperfectly relevant laws and regulations. Therefore, we want to ask spontaneously, whether North-South trade and backward property rights result in ecological resources to tend to impoverish in developing countries? Based on this question, this dissertation proposes a hypothesis of "backward property rights result in ecological resources to tend to impoverish in developing countries", then try to illustrate the mechanism of the hypothesis logically, and prove it by means of mathematical and econometric models.Because of the different growth patterns between different kinds of ecological resources, this dissertation divides ecological resources into three categories:the first one including land and water is abiological renewable resources. They are lifeless and their stock is nearly fixed, with the using of resources, their quality will decline, but can be recovered and recycled if they are well protected. The second categories including animals, plants and microorganisms is biological renewable resources. They are animate and their stock rises according to some patterns. The third one including coal, crude oil, natural gas and ores is non-renewable resources. Their stock is fixed and will decline continually with the using of resources. Non-renewable resources have a significant feature of exhaustion.Corresponding to different characteristics of different ecological resources, this dissertation focus on different impacts of North-South trade and property rights on ecological resources. Firstly, we will examine how North-South trade and property rights influence the resources quality for abiological renewable resources, and we name the decline of resources quality to be "degeneration". Secondly, we will examine how North-South trade and property rights influence the resources stock for biological renewable resources, and we name the decrease of resources stock to be "depletion". Thirdly, we will examine how North-South trade and property rights influence the resources exploitation, and we name the rise of resources exploitation speed to be "exploitation acceleration". Finally, for the complex of ecological resources, if their quality degenerates, stock depletes and exploitation accelerates, then we summarize them into ecological resources "impoverishment". According to the classification method of ecological resources, this dissertation is been written as the following six aspects:Firstly, taking China as a case study, this dissertation analyzes the variation trend of ecological resources stock in developing countries, and it is found that the stock is in the process of continuous decrease. Then the factors leading to the decrease of ecological resources stock in developing countries are analyzed, North-South trade and property rights are found mattering a lot. After that, this dissertation further illustrates the mechanism that backward property rights result in the decrease of ecological resources stock in developing countries under the condition of open trade.Secondly, based on the standard renewable resources model in Brander and Taylor(1997), this dissertation incorporates endogenous resources property ownership to examine the impact of North-South trade and asymmetric resources property ownership on abiological renewable resources quality in developing countries. The results indicate that based on the objective function of prior industrial development, the South chooses a common resources property ownership, and based on the objective function of maximizing national utility, the North chooses a private property ownership. When it comes to the open trade, asymmetric resources property ownership make the resources deplete in the South, and be protected in the North.Thirdly, based on the standard renewable resources model in Brander and Taylor(1997), this dissertation incorporates symmetric resources property ownership--the resources are both state-owned in the South and the North, and asymmetric resources property ownership--the resources are state-owned in the South but privately owned in the North respectively, to examine the impact of North-South trade and endogenous property rights enforcement on biological renewable resources stock in developing countries.The results indicate that no matter symmetric or asymmetric resources property ownership, the endogenous choice that the resources property rights enforcement in the South is lower than in the North, has uniquely decided that the resources stock and long-term welfare will decline in the South, but rise in the North. Therefore, it is the backward resources property rights result in biological renewable resources to tend to deplete gradually in developing countries.Fourthly, this dissertation establishes a simple non-renewable resources model to investigate the impact of North-South trade and backward resources property rights on resources exploitation in developing countries. To this end, firstly we examine the optimal non-renewable resources taxation or subsidy under open trade and discover that the optimal taxation or subsidy is a one-to-one relationship with relative world price of resource goods. Then we analyze what is the impact of lower resources property rights enforcement in developing countries--the level of resources taxation is lower(or subsidy is higher) than in developed countries on non-renewable resources exploitation, and discover that lower resources property rights enforcement results in non-renewable exploitation to accelerate. After that, we further analyzes the impact of nationalization risk of resources property ownership on non-renewable resources exploitation in developing countries, and discover that immediate nationalization risk results in resources exploitation to accelerate rapidly. Therefore, it is the backward resources property rights result in non-renewable resources exploitation to accelerate in developing countries.Fifthly, this dissertation verify the hypothesis of "backward property rights result in ecological resources to tend to impoverish in developing countries" by using practical data. Based on the panel data of 56 developing countries from 2002 to 2008, we make use of CSW(Cross-Section Weights) method to examine whether backward property rights result in overall ecological resources to impoverish in developing countries, and whether this process plays a part mainly through North-South trade. The results indicate that backward property rights indeed result in ecological resources to tend to impoverish in developing countries, and this process plays a part mainly through North-South trade. Therefore. North-South trade is just the channel of ecological resources impoverishment in developing countries, it is the "apparent" reason; backward property rights are the real influence factor of ecological resources impoverishment in developing countries, it is the "essential" reason.Finally, this dissertation summarizes the advanced experiences of ecological resources management in developed countries. Based on this and combined with conclusions of this dissertation, we propose some policy suggestions to mitigate ecological resources impoverishment in allusion to practical conditions of developing countries.