Institutions and Deforestation in Developing Countries

This thesis investigates the role of institutions on deforestation within the framework of the New Institutional Economics. This theory states that institutions can be de ned such as the incentive system which shape economic interactions throughout the modulation of the incentives of agents. This way, institutions are at stake in the process of deforestation and the analysis of this role is the core of this thesis, articulated around three parts: the role of institutional persistence (part 1), the importance of the demand for good governance (part 2), and the implications of institutions and governance system as an underlying framework shaping proximate causes of deforestation (part 3). The rst part stresses the importance of taking into account colonial and legal legacies to understand the role of institutions on deforestation. The second part explains the leading role of the demand for good governance to preserve forests throughout its interactions with the supply for good governance. The third part proposes two micro-economics applications in Brazil. The role of institutions and governance system on forest cover is de ned as a catalytic role precipitating the e ect of proximate causes on deforestation such as agricultural productivity in the Legal Amazon, or strategic behaviors between counties in the creation of municipal conservation units in the state of Paraná.