Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Author-Name: Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay Author-Name-First: Sutirtha Author-Name-Last: Bandyopadhyay Author-Email: sutirthab@iimidr.ac.in Author-Workplace-Name: Indian Institute of Management, Indore Author-Name: Pranabes Dutta Author-Name-First: Pranabes Author-Name-Last: Dutta Author-Email: dutta@gradcenter.cuny.edu Author-Workplace-Name: The City University of New York Author-Name: Naveen Hari Author-Name-First: Naveen Author-Name-Last: Hari Author-Email: naveen.hari@tamu.edu Author-Workplace-Name: Texas A& M University Author-Name: Bipasha Maity Author-Name-First: Bipasha Author-Name-Last: Maity Author-Email: bipasha.maity@ashoka.edu.in Author-Workplace-Name: Ashoka University Title: Female Legislators and Forest Conservation in India Abstract: We study the causal impact of legislator gender on forest cover growth in India. Exploiting quasi-random variation in close mixed gender electoral races in a regression discontinuity framework, we find that assembly constituencies where a female politician won witnessed an increase in subsequent annual forest cover growth by 6%. However, this result is limited to constituencies that are reserved for historically marginalized communities. Our findings underscore the role of legislator identity in influencing environmental conservation and thereby achieving sustainable development in India. length: 38 Creation-Date: 20230913 Revision-Date: Publication-Status: File-URL:https://dp.ashoka.edu.in/ash/wpaper/paper104_0.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Number: 104 Keywords: close elections Keywords: female legislators Keywords: forest Keywords: India Keywords: regression discontinuity Handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:104