The Tragedy of the Commons in Cote d'Ivoire Agriculture: Empirical Evidence and Implications for Evaluating Trade Policies

Expansion of cultivated land diminishes the extent of forestlandsor reduces the length of fallow periods and, hence, reducesthe amount of natural vegetation. The increase in land undercultivation has a direct output-increasing effect at the costof reducing natural capital and agricultural productivity. Theevidence for western Côte d'Ivoire is consistent with,and provides an explanation for, the declining agriculturalproductivity observed in Sub-Saharan Africa during the pastfew decades. This article uses a theoretical model to determine the levelof land cultivation that maximizes village income, using datafrom Côte d'Ivoire for 1985–87. An important partof the land is under common property, usually at the villagelevel. The results show that farmers do not internalize evena small fraction of the external cost of bio-mass in their landallocation decisions. The lack of internalization of the socialcost of the biomass resource leads to large income losses atthe village level—as much as 14 percent of village income.These losses are many times larger than the usual estimatesfor conventional distortions.