Women leaders improve environmental outcomes: Evidence from crop fires in India

Abstract

This paper provides the first plausibly causal evidence that women leaders improve environmental outcomes. Using a close-election regression discontinuity design, we find that the election of a female politician over a male politician decreases crop fire incidence and biomass-related particulate emissions in India. These effects are concentrated during the harvest and post-harvest months in districts that follow fire-suited cropping patterns. To understand mechanisms, we survey 424 male and female village council leaders in Punjab, the Indian state with the highest per capita incidence of crop fires. We find women leaders are more likely to consider crop fires a serious issue, weigh their impacts on child health, support regulations to decrease crop fire incidence, and implement specific crop residue management policies like private residue collection or encouraging crop residue use as fodder.