Open AccessOil palm development and forced displacement in Colombia: causal or spurious?
Author(s) -
Monica Hurtado Lozano,
Catherine María Pereira Villa,
Edgar Villa Pérez
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
cuadernos de economía
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2248-4337
pISSN - 0121-4772
DOI - 10.15446/cuad.econ.v36n71.52554
Subject(s) - palm oil , agribusiness , spurious relationship , displacement (psychology) , subsidy , forced migration , displaced person , palm , agricultural economics , point (geometry) , economics , agriculture , environmental science , geography , agricultural science , statistics , mathematics , psychology , market economy , archaeology , physics , refugee , geometry , quantum mechanics , psychotherapist
This article analyses whether forced displacement in the Magdalena Department (Colombia) between 2000-2010 was caused not only by the intensity of the armed conflict but also by the growth of the palm agribusiness. We find that a seven percentage point increase in the area used to produce palm per municipality caused an increase of a third of a standard deviation in the rate of forced displacement. These calculations were made on average and after controlling for armed conflict. We rationalize this finding by the fact that the development of the palm oil agribusiness caused displacement due to its land-intensive technology, increasing international prices combined with government subsidies, and the process was aided by paramilitary activities in the region.