Charcoal trade; Rent; Forest management; Madagascar; Social capital

Licensing the exploitation of forest resources is often used as a preferred policy to regulate natural resource management in developing countries. Based on survey data from 178 charcoal traders, this paper studies the regulated charcoal trade in Madagascar and tests if regulatory control through a licensing system leads to rents (i.e., excess payments above those required to induce or provide for production) in charcoal trade. Two main findings were made.