Productivity and development-promoting policies in the agricultural and timber industries of the Brazilian Amazon

Development of a frontier area under public domain has often been sought through series of colonization programs accompanied with incentive policies such as road building, land title transfer and credit supply policies. This dissertation assesses (1) the short-run and long-run effects of land titling and credit supply policies on productivity of agricultural and timber industries in the Brazilian Amazon, and (2) the efficiency of the development of the agricultural and timber industries in the region.; A data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to derive Farrell's technical, allocative and revenue efficiency measures for the agricultural and timber industries of 255 Brazilian Amazon counties. In the second-stage, technical and revenue efficiency scores are regressed on land titles, land title security, and credit variables using a Tobit regression. Results for 1985 indicate that land titling policies can negatively affect technical efficiency scores because provision of land titles, when used as incentive, can lead to an increase in cleared and cultivated land without much increase in output levels. However, results for 1995 indicate that technical efficiency scores are higher for counties with more land titles. It is also found that counties with more land titles tend to produce too much agricultural output and too little timber output to maximize county revenues.; The results for 1985 indicate that provision of the FINAM credit negatively affects both technical and revenue efficiency scores in the short run. This negative effect on technical efficiency scores has apparently been persistent and large enough to offset the long-run effect of land titles on technical efficiency.; Measures of productivity change are developed for the agricultural and timber industries in 255 Amazon counties based on the Malmquist index. Measures of regional technical change in the Amazon in 1975--1995 also are developed based on a DEA frontier reconstruction method. Productivity change, efficiency change and technical change are all found to be positive throughout the period 1975--1995. A comparison indicates that there is a large positive technical change in roundwood production from 1975 to 1995. The crop industry exhibits a slow but continuous positive technical change throughout the period.