A spatial difference-in-differences analysis of the impact of sugarcane production on respiratory diseases

André Chagas, Carlos Azzoni and Alexandre Almeida ()

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2016, vol. 59, issue C, 24-36

Abstract: Sugarcane production represents around 10% of the agricultural area and 1% of GDP in Brazil, and has grown substantially in recent years. The traditional harvest method involves burning the field to facilitate access to the canes, resulting in well-documented negative effects on health. The existing studies do not consider the effects on health in the surrounding areas. This article presents a new variety of a spatial diff-in-diff model to control for the effects of sugarcane production in neighboring non-producing regions. This method is an addition to the Spatial Econometrics literature, as it includes spatial effects on treated and untreated regions, so that the effects on both producing and surrounding non-producing regions can be properly estimated. The results indicate that the effects on the producing regions are 78% larger than if the effects on the surrounding areas were ignored. Moreover, the effects on the surrounding areas, typically ignored in other studies, are relevant, and almost as large as the effects on the producing areas.

Keywords: Spatial diff-in-diff; Sugarcane producing; Health conditions; Spatial Econometrics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C23 I18 Q18 Q42 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (62)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:regeco:v:59:y:2016:i:c:p:24-36

DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2016.04.002

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