ABSTRACT
This chapter describes two alternative procedures to derive inferences about the magnitude and direction of effects of population growth on deforestation. The first procedure involves statistical techniques that have evolved rapidly within the field of what in the social sciences is referred to as meta-analysis. The second technique requires the application of very simple principles of qualitative algebra to a set of case studies. A related but distinct conceptual shortcoming is immediately erected as soon as population is conceived simply as the absolute number of people or its relative growth. Conventionally, population growth and selected economic outcomes have been linked together through generalized “production functions” that translate factor densities into output. There are three types of studies to verify, disprove, or inform the relations being analyzed. The first are simulation models. The second type of studies are those that use aggregate relations and employ a variable-oriented approach. The third type involves case studies that deal with a complete causal configuration.
