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The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure

Author

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  • Sam Asher
  • Teevrat Garg
  • Paul Novosad

Abstract

There is a long-standing debate over whether new roads unavoidably lead to environmental damage, especially forest loss, but causal identification has been elusive. Using multiple causal identification strategies, we study the construction of new rural roads to over 100,000 villages and the upgrading of 10,000 kilometers of national highways in India. The new rural roads had precisely zero effect on local deforestation. In contrast, the highway upgrades caused substantial forest loss, which appears to be driven by increased timber demand along the transportation corridors. In terms of forests, last mile connectivity had a negligible environmental cost, while expansion of major corridors had important environmental impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Sam Asher & Teevrat Garg & Paul Novosad, 2020. "The Ecological Impact of Transportation Infrastructure," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(629), pages 1173-1199.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:130:y:2020:i:629:p:1173-1199.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueaa013
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Baehr, Christian & BenYishay, Ariel & Parks, Brad, 2023. "Highway to the forest? Land governance and the siting and environmental impacts of Chinese government-funded road building in Cambodia," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    2. Araujo, Rafael & Costa, Francisco J M & Sant'Anna, Marcelo, 2020. "Efficient Forestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Evidence from a Dynamic Model," SocArXiv 8yfr7, Center for Open Science.
    3. Julio Aguirre & Elmer Guerrero & Yohnny Campana, 2021. "How effective are protected natural areas when roads are present? An analysis of the Peruvian case," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 831-859, October.
    4. Teevrat Garg & Ajay Shenoy, 2021. "The Ecological Impact of Place‐Based Economic Policies," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(4), pages 1239-1250, August.
    5. Heß, Simon & Jaimovich, Dany & Schündeln, Matthias, 2021. "Environmental effects of development programs: Experimental evidence from West African dryland forests," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    6. Raahil Madhok & Frederik Noack & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, 2022. "Rural-Urban Migration and the Re-organization of Agriculture," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2349, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    7. Jung, Suhyun & Rogers, Martha, 2024. "Mobile phone adoption, deforestation, and agricultural land use in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    8. Galarza, Francisco & Kámiche Zegarra, Joanna & Gómez de Zea, Rosario, 2023. "Roads and deforestation: do local institutions matter?," Working Papers 23-03, Centro de Investigación, Universidad del Pacífico.
    9. Vanden Eynde, Oliver & Wren-Lewis, Liam, 2021. "Complementarities in Infrastructure: Evidence from Rural India," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 2104, CEPREMAP.
    10. Chaurey, Ritam & Le, Duong Trung, 2022. "Infrastructure maintenance and rural economic activity: Evidence from India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    11. Noah Kaiser & Christina K. Barstow, 2022. "Rural Transportation Infrastructure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of Impacts, Implications, and Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-48, February.
    12. Teevrat Garg & Maulik Jagnani & Hemant K. Pullabhotla, 2022. "Structural transformation and environmental externalities," Papers 2212.02664, arXiv.org.
    13. Xie, Dongshui & Bai, Caiquan & Zhang, Yuwei, 2023. "Relation-based governance, financial crisis shock, and economic growth in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    14. Eynde, Oliver Vanden & Wren-Lewis, Liam, 2024. "Complementarities in Infrastructure: Evidence from Indian Agriculture," SocArXiv ejb8x, Center for Open Science.
    15. Priya Manwaring & Tanner Regan, 2023. "Public Disclosure and Tax Compliance: Evidence from Uganda," CSAE Working Paper Series 2023-05, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    16. Ujjayant Chakravorty & Xiangzheng Deng & Yazhen Gong & Martino Pelli & Qian Zhang, 2023. "A Tale of Two Roads: Groundwater Depletion in the North China Plain," CESifo Working Paper Series 10639, CESifo.
    17. Mihaylova, Iva, 2023. "Perpetuating the malign legacy of colonialism? Traditional chiefs’ power and deforestation in Sierra Leone," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    18. Junrui He & Senbin Yang & Shuhan Deng & Jianping Ye & Hongsheng Chen, 2024. "Research on the Decoupling Relationship between Transportation Land and Population Growth: A Case of Guangdong Province in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, April.
    19. Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay & Pranabes Dutta & Naveen Hari & Bipasha Maity, 2023. "Female Legislators and Forest Conservation in India," Working Papers 104, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    20. Ren Yang & Baoqing Qin & Yuancheng Lin, 2021. "Assessment of the Impact of Land Use Change on Spatial Differentiation of Landscape and Ecosystem Service Values in the Case of Study the Pearl River Delta in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-16, November.
    21. Ai, Hongshan & Zhou, Zhengqing, 2023. "Green growth: The impact of urban forest construction on economic growth in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    22. Dongshui Xie & Caiquan Bai & Weiwei Xiao, 2022. "Institutional environment, development model transformation and North–South economic disparity in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 1877-1906, December.
    23. Abman, Ryan & Lundberg, Clark, 2024. "Contracting, market access and deforestation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    24. Abman, Ryan & Lundberg, Clark, 2022. "Market Access and Deforestation," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322251, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    25. Mensah,Justice Tei & Hirfrfot,Kibrom Tafere & Abay,Kibrom A., 2022. "Saving Lives through Technology : Mobile Phones and Infant Mortality," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9978, The World Bank.

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