The Ecological Impact of Place‐Based Economic Policies
研究印度北阿坎德邦新邦成立后的一项地方经济政策对森林覆盖的影响，发现即使执法不严，该政策也未导致森林面积显著减少，表明经济发展与生态保护可兼得。
Does economic development have an unavoidable ecological cost? We examine the impacts on forest cover of one of India's signature place‐based economic policies involving massive tax benefits for new industrial and infrastructure development following the creation of the new state of Uttarakhand. Using a spatial difference‐in‐discontinuities design, we show that the policy, which explicitly excluded environmentally damaging industries, resulted in no meaningful change in local forest cover. Our results suggest that even in settings with low levels of enforcement, place‐based economic policies that deliver transformative economic expansion can be implemented with minimal ecological costs.