Clientelism and Forest loss in a Macro-Comparative perspective

Abstract For several decades, cross-national scholars have aimed to understand why democracy tends to be related to increased forest loss, despite theory suggesting the exact opposite directional relationship. Recently, Sanford (2021) finds that closer elections in democratic nations tend to increase forest loss. The author attributes this finding to be the result of clientelism or the targeted distribution of goods, services, jobs, and money in exchange for the political support of a candidate. However, we are not aware of any cross-national research that considers if higher levels of clientelism are related to increased forest loss in low- and middle-income nations. To fill this gap, we analyze data for 80 low- and middle-income nations using a two-stage instrumental variable regression model. We find that higher levels of clientelism correspond with increased forest loss after controlling for various economic, political, and demographic factors hypothesized to explain it.