Before drawing causal inferences about the effects of market exposure on well-being or on the use of natural resources one must first understand what drives people to or away from the market economy. One cannot take the degree of market participation as a given because people decide how much to take part in market transactions. An active area of research centers on why native Amazonians take part in the market Why do subsistence-level people join the market economy? We have tested hypotheses about push and pull determinants. Push determinants include declining land availability from population pressure and from the expansion of encroachers. Pull determinants include the lure of manufactured goods and employment in modern occupations, the desire to accumulate modern forms of human capital (e.g., schooling, academic skills), and the possibility of obtaining access to modern health facilities. Preliminary results suggest thatTsimane’ both sidle and retreat from the market— some move closer to the market to take advantage of facilities offered by the market economy and Westerner, but others move father into the backlands to take advantage of better hunting, fishing, and farming. It is still not clear why people fall into one or the other group, but identifying the exogenous source of variation in market participation matters since it will allow one to assess with more accuracy the effect of market participation on well-being and the use of natural resources.
