9602978 Potter This U.S.-Brazil Program award will support collaborative research involving Dr. Joseph E. Potter of the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Charles H. Wood of the University of Florida, and Dr. Alicia Bercovich, of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE) in activities designed to incorporate new methods and statistical techniques, particularly the application of geographic information systems (GIS) and econometric software, into the study of demographic and environmental processes in Brazil. This grant will allow these researchers to train in and fully develop the GIS and econometric techniques to analyze three aspects of Brazilian demography and population and environment relations: levels and trends in fertility and their correlation with access to mass media and other social and economic determinants of fertility; deforestation in the Amazon basin and its relation to demographic change, and the relation between land tenure security and resource use in the Amazon basin. By enhancing the ability to combine GIS and spatial econometrics, this collaboration has the potential to promote cutting-edge of socio-demographic research in both the U.S. and Brazil. It will also facilitate the execution of the two institutions' agendas and advance research on demographic and environmental processes. ***
