[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tse/iastwp/126766.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Buying a Blind Eye: Campaign Donations, Regulatory Enforcement, and Deforestation in Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Harding, Robin
  • Prem, Mounu
  • Ruiz, Nelson A.
  • Vargas, David L.
Abstract
While existing work has demonstrated that campaign donations can buy access to benets such as favorable legislation and preferential contracting, we highlight another use of campaign contributions: buying reductions in regulatory enforcement. Specically, we argue that in return for campaign contributions, Colombian mayors who rely on donor-funding (compared to those who do not) choose not to enforce sanctions against illegal deforestation activities. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that deforestation is signicantly higher in municipalities that elect donor-funded as opposed to self-funded politicians. Further analysis shows that only part of this eect can be explained by dierences in contracting practices by donor-funded mayors. Instead, evidence of heterogeneity in the eects according to the presence of alternative formal and informal enforcement institutions, and analysis of re clearance, support the interpretation that campaign contributions buy reductions in the enforcement of environmental regulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Harding, Robin & Prem, Mounu & Ruiz, Nelson A. & Vargas, David L., 2022. "Buying a Blind Eye: Campaign Donations, Regulatory Enforcement, and Deforestation in Colombia," IAST Working Papers 22-136, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    • Handle: RePEc:tse:iastwp:126766
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iast.fr/sites/default/files/IAST/wp/wp_iast_136.pdf
    File Function: Full Text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://iast.fr/pub/126766
    File Function: null
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael R. Baye & Dan Kovenock & Casper G. Vries, 2008. "Rigging the lobbying process: An application of the all-pay auction," Springer Books, in: Roger D. Congleton & Kai A. Konrad & Arye L. Hillman (ed.), 40 Years of Research on Rent Seeking 2, pages 331-336, Springer.
    2. Leonid Hurwicz, 2008. "But Who Will Guard the Guardians?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 577-585, June.
    3. Acharya, Avidit & Blackwell, Matthew & Sen, Maya, 2016. "Explaining Causal Findings Without Bias: Detecting and Assessing Direct Effects," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 110(3), pages 512-529, August.
    4. Prem, Mounu & Saavedra, Santiago & Vargas, Juan F., 2020. "End-of-conflict deforestation: Evidence from Colombia’s peace agreement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Snyder, James M, Jr, 1990. "Campaign Contributions as Investments: The U.S. House of Representatives, 1980-1986," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1195-1227, December.
    6. Emanuele Colonnelli & Mounu Prem & Edoardo Teso, 2020. "Patronage and Selection in Public Sector Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3071-3099, October.
    7. Jorge Restrepo & Michael Spagat & Juan Vargas, 2004. "The Dynamics of the Columbian Civil Conflict: A New Dataset," Homo Oeconomicus, Institute of SocioEconomics, vol. 21, pages 396-429.
    8. Ivan A Canay & Vishal Kamat, 2018. "Approximate Permutation Tests and Induced Order Statistics in the Regression Discontinuity Design," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(3), pages 1577-1608.
    9. Robin Burgess & Matthew Hansen & Benjamin A. Olken & Peter Potapov & Stefanie Sieber, 2012. "The Political Economy of Deforestation in the Tropics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(4), pages 1707-1754.
    10. Bulte, Erwin H. & Damania, Richard & Lopez, Ramon, 2007. "On the gains of committing to inefficiency: Corruption, deforestation and low land productivity in Latin America," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 277-295, November.
    11. Manuel Fernàndez, 2012. "Violencia y derechos de propiedad: El caso de La Violencia en Colombia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 30(69), pages 112-147, December.
    12. Daron Acemoglu & Davide Ticchi & Andrea Vindigni, 2011. "Emergence And Persistence Of Inefficient States," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 177-208, April.
    13. Pailler, Sharon, 2018. "Re-election incentives and deforestation cycles in the Brazilian Amazon," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 345-365.
    14. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocio Titiunik, 2014. "Robust Nonparametric Confidence Intervals for Regression‐Discontinuity Designs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2295-2326, November.
    15. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    16. Nellis, Gareth & Siddiqui, Niloufer, 2018. "Secular Party Rule and Religious Violence in Pakistan," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(1), pages 49-67, February.
    17. Karina Margarita Acevedo & Iván David Bornacelly, 2014. "Panel Municipal del CEDE," Documentos CEDE 12223, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    18. Matias D. Cattaneo & Michael Jansson & Xinwei Ma, 2018. "Manipulation testing based on density discontinuity," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 18(1), pages 234-261, March.
    19. Thomas Stratmann, 2005. "Some talk: Money in politics. A (partial) review of the literature," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 135-156, July.
    20. Bonilla-Mejía, Leonardo & Higuera-Mendieta, Iván, 2019. "Protected Areas under Weak Institutions: Evidence from Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 585-596.
    21. Clare Balboni & Robin Burgess & Anton Heil & Jonathan Old & Benjamin A. Olken, 2021. "Cycles of Fire? Politics and Forest Burning in Indonesia," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 415-419, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mounu Prem & Miguel Purroy & Juan F. Vargas, 2021. "Landmines: The local effects of demining," Documentos de Trabajo 19733, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).

    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. Leopoldo Fergusson & Pablo Querubin & Nelson A. Ruiz & Juan F. Vargas, 2021. "The Real Winner's Curse," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 52-68, January.
    2. Juan F. Vargas & Miguel E. Purroy & Felipe Coy & Sergio Perilla & Mounu Prem, 2023. "Fear to Vote Explosions, Salience, and Elections," Documentos de Trabajo 20801, Universidad del Rosario.
    3. Somdeep Chatterjee & Pushkar Maitra & Manhar Manchanda, 2024. "The Relevant Third: Threat of Coalition and Economic Development," Monash Economics Working Papers 2024-13, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    4. Bragança, Arthur & Dahis, Ricardo, 2022. "Cutting special interests by the roots: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    5. Blaise Melly & Rafael Lalive, 2020. "Estimation, Inference, and Interpretation in the Regression Discontinuity Design," Diskussionsschriften dp2016, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    6. David Wuepper & Robert Finger, 2023. "Regression discontinuity designs in agricultural and environmental economics," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(1), pages 1-28.
    7. Galindo-Silva, Hector, 2021. "Political openness and armed conflict: Evidence from local councils in Colombia," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Vargas, Juan F. & Purroy, Miguel E. & Coy, Felipe & Perilla, Sergio & Prem, Mounu, 2022. "Do explosions shape voting behavior?," SocArXiv dw9vn, Center for Open Science.
    9. Yoichi Arai & Yu‐Chin Hsu & Toru Kitagawa & Ismael Mourifié & Yuanyuan Wan, 2022. "Testing identifying assumptions in fuzzy regression discontinuity designs," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(1), pages 1-28, January.
    10. Leopoldo Fergusson & Arturo Harker & Carlos Molina & Juan Camilo Yamín, 2023. "Political incentives and corruption evidence from ghost students," Documentos CEDE 20732, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    11. Bovay, John, 2021. "Moral hazard under discrete information disclosure: Evidence from food-safety inspections," 2021 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 3-5, 2021, San Diego, California 307948, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Maria Alice Moz-Christofoletti & Paula Carvalho Pereda & Wesley Campanharo, 2022. "Does Decentralized and Voluntary Commitment Reduce Deforestation? The Effects of Programa Municípios Verdes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(1), pages 65-100, May.
    13. Chauvin, Juan Pablo & Tricaud, Clemence, 2022. "Gender and Electoral Incentives: Evidence from Crisis Response," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12411, Inter-American Development Bank.
    14. Gurmu, Shiferaw & Sjoquist, David L. & Wheeler, Laura, 2021. "The effectiveness of job creation tax credits," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    15. Wuepper, David & Borrelli, Pasquale & Mueller, Daniel & Finger, Robert, 2020. "Quantifying the soil erosion legacy of the Soviet Union," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    16. Potrafke, Niklas & Roesel, Felix, 2020. "The urban–rural gap in healthcare infrastructure: does government ideology matter?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 54(3), pages 340-351.
    17. Mellace, Giovanni & Ventura, Marco, 2019. "Intended and unintended effects of public incentives for innovation. Quasi-experimental evidence from Italy," Discussion Papers on Economics 9/2019, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    18. Gabriele Mari, 2024. "Less for more? Cuts to child benefits, family adjustments, and long-run child outcomes in larger families," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 1-27, June.
    19. Raphael Bruce & Alexsandros Cavgias & Luis Meloni & Mario Remigio, 2021. "Under Pressure: Women's Leadership During the COVID-19 Crisis," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2021_19, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    20. Adam C. Sales & Ben B. Hansen, 2020. "Limitless Regression Discontinuity," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 45(2), pages 143-174, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Campaign donations; Deforestation; Regulatory enforcement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    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:tse:iastwp:126766. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iasttfr.html .

    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.