Down the River: Glyphosate Use in Agriculture and Birth Outcomes of Surrounding Populations

Mateus Dias (), Rudi Rocha and Rodrigo Soares

No 17176, Documentos de Trabajo from The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA)

Abstract: This paper documents an externality from the agricultural use of the most widely applied herbicide in human history—glyphosate—on birth outcomes of surrounding populations. We focus on the subclinical effects of water contamination in areas distant from the original locations of application. Our identification relies on: (i) the regulation allowing the introduction of genetically modified seeds in Brazil; (ii) the potential gain in municipality-level productivity from adoption of genetically modified soybean seeds; (iii) the strong complementary between glyphosate and genetically modified soybean seeds; and (iv) the direction of water flow within water basins. We document a deterioration in birth outcomes for populations downstream from locations that exogenously expanded glyphosate use, with no effect for populations upstream from these locations. We provide several pieces of evidence indicating that this effect is related to water contamination from expansions in soybean production and rule out alternative channels other than glyphosate. Despite ongoing controversy, little is known about the externality imposed by pesticides on the health of human populations at large. This externality, nevertheless, is essential for assessing the net benefit from the adoption of new agricultural technologies. We provide a first piece of evidence on this type of externality.

Keywords: Glyphosate; herbicides; birth outcomes; infant mortality; water; externalities. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 O33 Q15 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56
Date: 2019-02-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://vox.lacea.org/files/Working_Papers/lacea_wps_0024_dias_rocha_soares.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: Down the River: Glyphosate Use in Agriculture and Birth Outcomes of Surrounding Populations (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000518:017176

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Documentos de Trabajo from The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LACEA ().