Research

This paper examines the effect of biomass burning on adolescent health in India. The biomass burning problem is quite acute especially in North India, with some states experiencing forest fires and few states actively engaging in crop burning practice. We combine remote sensing data on biomass burning events with a pan-India survey on teenage girls (TAG survey). We exploit regional and temporal variation in our data to establish the link between occurrence of extremely high levels of biomass burning during early life and adolescent height for girls in India. Our results indicate that exposure to extremely high level of biomass burning during prenatal and postnatal period is associated with lower height  (by 0.7 percent or 1.07 cms) later in life.  Girls from North India are found to be especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of exposure to biomass burning.

We examine the impact of exposure to biomass burning events (primarily crop burning) on the prevalence of hypertension in four North Indian states. We use data from the National Family Health Survey-IV  for 2015-16 and employ a multivariate logistic and linear model to estimate the effect of exposure to biomass burning on the prevalence of hypertension and blood pressure, respectively. The adjusted odds ratio of hypertension among individuals living in areas with high intensity of biomass (HIB) burning (defined as exposure to > 100 fire-events during the past 30 days) is 1.15 [95% CI: 1.003-1.32]. The odds ratios further increase at a higher intensity of biomass burning and locations downwind to fires are found to be responsible for the negative effect of fires on cardiovascular health. We also find that the systolic and diastolic blood pressure for older cohorts is significantly higher due to exposure to HIB. We estimate that elimination of HIB would prevent loss of 70 to 91 thousand DALYs every year and 1.73 to 2.24 Billion USD (in PPP terms) over 5 years by reducing the prevalence of hypertension. Therefore, curbing biomass burning will be associated with significant health and economic benefits in North India.

We study the impact of early-life exposure to pollution enhancing crop burning and forest fire events on child health and human capital in India. Using remote sensing data on fire events combined with daily wind direction, we find that a 10 unit monthly increase in exposure to upwind fires during 0 to 2 months before birth period lowers Height-for-age (by 2 percent), increases the likelihood of stunting and severe stunting and preterm births also increase. Children belonging to poor households, born to mothers with low education levels and low access to antenatal care are found to be especially vulnerable.

Unintended consequences of public policies, while common, are under-studied and often unaccounted for in economic analysis. In this paper we study the unintended consequences of a public information campaign on water quality on the marriage market in rural Bangladesh. Despite being heavily contaminated with arsenic, groundwater was the main source of drinking water for rural dwellers in Bangladesh since the 1970s. This created a major health emergency in the country as arsenic exposure causes multiple health problems, ranging from skin lessons to various types of cancer. However, until the mid 1990s, the contamination remained largely unknown and became public knowledge only later through a nationwide information campaign. We study the impact of the campaign on marriage patterns in rural Bangladesh. A dynamic matching model generates the testable hypothesis that such a campaign reduces age at marriage for both men and women. In our empirical analysis we use a difference-in-difference model to confirm this prediction, finding that age at marriage decreased in arsenic affected areas compared to areas that were unaffected, and that this effect is primarily driven by younger cohorts. Additionally, the bride price agreed upon at the time of marriage decreased, while early child bearing increased. These are important social consequences, however, often ignored in most analyses.

Environmental outcomes can be shaped by underlying politics. This study investigates whether pre-determined election timings affect these outcomes by combining electoral data with remote sensing data on crop burning, forest fires, slash-and-burn activity, and tree cover for 28 major states (covering approximately 3,800 assembly constituencies) in India from 2008 to 2019. Analyzing 71 elections during this period reveals evidence of the presence of electoral cycles in environmental outcomes, with non-election years experiencing higher levels of environmentally harmful activities compared to election years. These cycles are more pronounced when the incumbent’s party wins without a supermajority in state elections. The study further shows that specific factors, such as high-yield crop varieties, poverty levels, and Scheduled Tribe (ST) population proportions, also shape these environmental outcomes across the electoral cycle.