Autor
- Fanny Moffette
Deforestation, market linkages, and health: Evidence from slaughterhouse closures in Colombia Artículo académico
Perfil
Resumen
- This paper studies the effects of sanitary regulation–induced infrastructure shocks on agricultural structure, production, and associated social and environmental outcomes. We exploit the implementation of a sanitation policy in Colombia that resulted in the closure of slaughterhouses in hundreds of municipalities. We estimate the causal impacts of these closures, using municipal-level panel data and a staggered difference-in-differences design. While the aggregate cattle herd remains unchanged, production becomes more concentrated: the number of large farms increases by 10%. This pattern is consistent with higher transportation costs to remaining slaughterhouses disproportionately affecting small-scale producers. We find no statistically significant effects on deforestation, despite a slight downward trend. In contrast, we document unintended public health consequences: slaughterhouse closures increase digestive disease–related health visits by 8.7%, and increase infectious and parasitic disease visits by 12.4%. This likely reflects the expansion of informal slaughtering activities. Overall, the results highlight the trade-offs associated with infrastructure reductions in rural economies and underscore the interconnected effects on market structure, environmental outcomes, and public health in developing countries.
autores
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http://vivoweb.org/ontology/core#FacultyMemberSaavedra Pineda, Santiago
fecha de publicación
- 2026-6-1
Área temática
Edición
- 138
Identidad
Número Internacional Normalizado de Publicaciones Seriadas (ISSN)
- 0095-0696