IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ash/wpaper/136.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are Crop Residue Burning Bans Effective? Evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Shefali Khanna

    (LSE)

  • Kanika Mahajan

    (Ashoka University)

  • Sudarshan RSA

    (University of British Columbia)

Abstract

Crop residue burning (CRB) is a leading cause of high air pollution in developing countries. We examine the effectiveness of India’s largest ban on CRB using a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits its implementation in select states. We find that there was a reduction in fire counts by 30% of the pre-ban mean albeit waning to near-zero two-three years after the ban. Using state-level data on fines, we show that burning initially reduced in areas where the ban was relatively better enforced, generating uncertainty for farmers. However, low levels of overall enforcement led to a return to the old status-quo.

Suggested Citation

  • Shefali Khanna & Kanika Mahajan & Sudarshan RSA, 2024. "Are Crop Residue Burning Bans Effective? Evidence from India," Working Papers 136, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dp.ashoka.edu.in/ash/wpaper/paper136_0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. B. Kelsey Jack & Seema Jayachandran & Namrata Kala & Rohini Pande, 2025. "Money (Not) to Burn: Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Crop Residue Burning," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 39-55, March.
    2. Leena A. Kaushal & Anupama Prashar, 2021. "Agricultural crop residue burning and its environmental impacts and potential causes – case of northwest India," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(3), pages 464-484, February.
    3. Wangyang Lai & Shanjun Li & Yanan Li & Xiaohui Tian, 2022. "Air Pollution and Cognitive Functions: Evidence from Straw Burning in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 190-208, January.
    4. Cao, Jing & Ma, Rong, 2023. "Mitigating agricultural fires with carrot or stick? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    5. Ruoyu Lan & Sebastian D. Eastham & Tianjia Liu & Leslie K. Norford & Steven R. H. Barrett, 2022. "Air quality impacts of crop residue burning in India and mitigation alternatives," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Digvijay S. Negi, 2024. "State Mediated Trade, Distortions and Air Pollution," Working Papers 129, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    2. Meghna Agarwala & Shampa Bhattacharjee & Aparajita Dasgupta, 2024. "Political Cycles in Crop Residue Burning: Evidence from India," Working Papers 117, Ashoka University, Department of Economics, revised 01 Aug 2024.
    3. Mohsen Jamali & Esmaeil Bakhshandeh & Mohammad Yaghoubi Khanghahi & Carmine Crecchio, 2021. "Metadata Analysis to Evaluate Environmental Impacts of Wheat Residues Burning on Soil Quality in Developing and Developed Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-13, June.
    4. Bukhari, Ayaz Hussain & Raja, Muhammad Asif Zahoor & Shoaib, Muhammad & Kiani, Adiqa Kausar, 2022. "Fractional order Lorenz based physics informed SARFIMA-NARX model to monitor and mitigate megacities air pollution," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    5. Lakshmikantha N R & Rinan Shah & Veena Srinivasan & Aditi Mukherji, 2025. "Hits and misses: water-based climate change adaptation interventions for agriculture in South Asia," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 1-32, March.
    6. Derek Sheehan & Katrina Mullan & Thales A. P. West & Erin O. Semmens, 2024. "Protecting Life and Lung: Protected Areas Affect Fine Particulate Matter and Respiratory Hospitalizations in the Brazilian Amazon Biome," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(1), pages 45-87, January.
    7. Behrer,Arnold Patrick, 2023. "Man or Machine ? Environmental Consequences of Wage Driven Mechanization in Indian Agriculture," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10376, The World Bank.
    8. Ron Chan & Martino Pelli & Veronica Vienne, 2023. "Air Pollution, Smoky Days and Hours Worked," CIRANO Working Papers 2023s-15, CIRANO.
    9. Hua, Wenyuan, 2025. "On the distributional effects of principal-agent problems: Evidence from China’s shell farmer cooperatives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    10. B. Kelsey Jack & Seema Jayachandran & Namrata Kala & Rohini Pande, 2025. "Money (Not) to Burn: Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Crop Residue Burning," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 39-55, March.
    11. Cao, Jing & Ma, Rong, 2023. "Mitigating agricultural fires with carrot or stick? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    12. Chen, Pan, 2025. "Industrialization and pollution: The long-term Impact of early-life exposure on human capital formation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    13. Jin, Bohan & Li, Zheng, 2024. "Air pollution, healthcare use, and inequality: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    14. Jian Chen & Xiaohui Tian & Jialing Yu, 2024. "How a price‐support policy can hurt the environment: Empirical evidence from Northeast China," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 72(2), pages 131-148, June.
    15. Lin, Tao & Qi, Minhao & Wei, Sijie & Chen, Zhao, 2024. "Welfare impacts of coal-fired power plants: Do economic benefits compensate health costs?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 1144-1163.
    16. repec:ags:aaea22:336014 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Paudel, Jayash, 2023. "Do environmental disasters affect human capital? The threat of forest fires," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    18. Yang, Lisi & Liu, Linqing & Yan, Kai & Cai, Chunhua & Geng, Yannan, 2023. "“Carrot and stick”: Green fiscal policy, upper echelons expertise, and the green mergers and acquisitions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    19. Hui Deng & Rui Du & Dongmei Guo & Weizeng Sun & Yuhuan Xia, 2023. "High‐stakes examinations and educational inequality: Evidence from transitory exposure to air pollution," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(3), pages 546-571, July.
    20. Kai Zhao & Xiaohui Tian & Wangyang Lai & Shuai Xu, 2024. "Agricultural production and air pollution: An investigation on crop straw fires," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(5), pages 1-16, May.
    21. Xianru Han & Wenying Li & Haoluan Wang, 2024. "A Burning Issue: Wildfire Smoke Exposure, Retail Sales, and Demand for Adaptation in Healthcare," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(11), pages 3011-3039, November.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ashoka University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ashoka.edu.in .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.