Modelling the impacts of bioenergy markets on the forest industry in the southern United States

The main objective of this article was to analyse the impacts of emerging bioenergy markets on traditional forest product sector markets in the USA. An econometric model was developed to obtain the equilibrium estimates for the bioenergy and traditional forest markets. The results from the econometric model, using data-set for the state of Florida, suggested that biomass for bioenergy and pulpwood and biomass for bioenergy and sawtimber act as substitutes while sawtimber and pulpwood act as complements to each other. A price subsidy policy scenario was considered to simulate a 30% increase in the demand for biomass for bioenergy. The simulation results suggested that inclusion of this policy scenario might generate additional benefits to forest landowners and bioenergy sector, while sawmill and pulpmill sectors might face adverse financial impacts.