A new look at agricultural fires and health: A replication of Rangel and Vogl (2019)

Abstract

Globally, over 400 million tons of biomass are burned in agricultural fires for management purposes each year, substantially affecting air quality (Korontzi et al., Global Biogeochemical Cycles 2006; 20; Yevich & Logan, Global Biogeochemical Cycles 2003; 17). Rangel and Vogl (Review of Economics and Statistics 2019; 101:616–630) provide evidence that agricultural fires in Brazil cause large declines in newborn health in downwind communities. We replicate this analysis and evaluate the sensitivity of their results to changes in the dataset and alternative modeling choices. Although accounting for the potential of spatial correlation in errors reduces precision of estimated effects, we find that their primary conclusions are robust to alternative specifications and reasonable placebo tests. We discuss how our findings may guide future research on the relationship between agricultural fires and health.