Are Crop Residue Burning Bans Effective? Evidence from India

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.