Dependency theory argues that due to unequal economic relationships, including exports, multinational corporations, and loans from multilateral lending institutions, high-income nations exploit the labor and resources of low- and middle-income nations. We extend this line of reasoning to the United States Export–Import Bank, as it has recently come under scrutiny for its lending in the forestry sector of low- and middle-income nations. Although this concern has been raised, we are not aware of any cross-national research that empirically evaluates if their investments adversely impact forests. Therefore, we examine the impact of the United States Export–Import Bank lending in the forestry sector on forest loss. Using a two-stage instrumental variable regression model to account for possible donor selection bias as well as ordinary least squares regression to analyze data for 78 low- and middle-income nations, we find that export credit agency financing is related to increased forest loss from 2001 to 2014. Our findings are consistent with dependency theory ideas that economic linkages with high-income nations increase forest loss in low- and middle-income nations.

中文翻译：

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输出森林损失？美国中低收入国家进出口银行融资的跨国分析

依附理论认为，由于不平等的经济关系，包括出口、跨国公司和多边贷款机构的贷款，高收入国家剥削低收入和中等收入国家的劳动力和资源。我们将这一推理延伸到美国进出口银行，因为它最近因向中低收入国家的林业部门提供贷款而受到审查。尽管已经提出了这种担忧，但我们不知道有任何跨国研究对他们的投资是否会对森林产生不利影响进行实证评估。因此，我们研究了美国进出口银行在林业部门的贷款对森林损失的影响。