Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Meghna  Agarwala
Author-Name-First: Meghna 
Author-Name-Last: Agarwala
Author-Email: meghna.agarwala@ashoka.edu.in
Author-Workplace-Name: Ashoka University
Author-Name: Shampa  Bhattacharjee
Author-Name-First: Shampa 
Author-Name-Last: Bhattacharjee
Author-Email: shampa.bhattacharjee@snu.edu.in
Author-Workplace-Name: Shiv Nadar University
Author-Name: Aparajita Dasgupta
Author-Name-First: Aparajita
Author-Name-Last: Dasgupta
Author-Email: aparajita.dasgupta@ashoka.edu.in
Author-Workplace-Name: Ashoka University
Title: Political Cycles in Crop Residue Burning: Evidence from India
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between electoral incentives and crop residue burning (CRB) in India. Exploiting the asynchronous nature of state legislative assembly elections, we investigate whether the proximity to election timing influences CRB incidence. We construct a novel dataset combining 1-km resolution daily NASA remote sensing data on CRB with state electoral constituency information. Our findings reveal a significant increase in CRB before elections, suggesting political incentives play a role in its persistence. We provide evidence that this pre-electoral spike is unlikely to be driven by increased crop production, pointing instead to the relaxed law enforcement for political gain.
length: 21
Creation-Date: 20240725
Revision-Date: 20240801
Publication-Status: 
File-URL:https://dp.ashoka.edu.in/ash/wpaper/paper117_0.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf 
Number: 117
Keywords: Crop Residue Burning
Keywords: environmental regulation
Keywords: Political cycles
Handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:117