Work

Cycles of Fire? Politics and Forest Burning in Indonesia

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: This paper examines the link between electoral incentives and environmental degradation by exploiting a satellite dataset on 107,000 forest fires and 879 asynchronous district elections in Indonesia. Fires represent a cheap but illegal means of converting forested land to other uses, but they risk burning out of control and creating substantial negative environmental externalities. We find a significant electoral cycle in forest fires. Ignitions and area burned decline during election years but steeply increase in the year after. The results suggest that politicians may suppress this activity at times when it might particularly dent their electoral chances.

Source: AEA Papers and Proceedings

DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211005

Authors: Clare Balboni, Robin Burgess, Anton Heil, Jonathan Old, Benjamin A. Olken

Institutions: Lahore School of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Life on land, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Climate action

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W3160190670

FWCI: 1.512

Cites: 21

Cited by: 29

Related to: 10