Wallace E. Oates Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award

Abstract

: One-fi fth of the Amazon has vanished, with global consequences for carbon emissions and “ local ” consequences for rainfall patterns on a continental scale. The agricultural sector is both the cause and victim of deforestation. As farmers deforest to increase land supply, rainfall decreases else-where. In a model with endogenous climate, rainfall and land use in fl uence each other, creating winners and losers in agriculture (chap. 1). Additionally, with decreasing rainfall, hydropower plants generate less electricity. A map that speci fi es regions of deforestation affecting hydropower plants allows policymakers to focus conservation and restoration efforts (chap. 2). The decision to deforest is not an atomistic process. Brazil made the decision to cut through the forest with large infrastructure projects, assessing (when assessing) the deforestation footprint based solely on distance to the projects. A trade model provides more realistic deforestation scenarios post-infrastructure