Rural Roads, Farm Labor Exits, and Crop Fires
研究发现农村道路建设促使农业劳动力外流，农民转而采用焚烧秸秆这种节省劳动力的方式，导致下游地区婴儿死亡率上升5.5%。
Even as policymakers seek to encourage economic development by addressing misallocation due to frictions in labor markets, the associated production externalities—such as air pollution—remain unexplored. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show access to rural roads increases agricultural fires and particulate emissions. Farm labor exits are a likely mechanism: rural roads cause movement of workers out of agriculture and induce farmers to use fire—a labor-saving but polluting technology—to clear agricultural residue or to make harvesting less labor-intensive. Overall, the adoption of fires due to rural roads increases infant mortality rates by 5.5 percent in downwind locations.