The debate on causes of and remedies for tropical deforestation is often confused because the underlying assumptions of the arguments are not made explicit. This paper compares four different modelling approaches to agricultural expansion and deforestation, and explores the implications of the...

The starting point of this paper is a universally observed tendency of common property to be replaced by private property in traditional agriculture. The paper seeks to explore the forces behind such a development. Four different theoretical approaches are discussed: neo-institutional economics,...