Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
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Biodiversity and Conservation Location: B002 Session Chair: Paulo Santos, Monash University | |
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Crops, Insects, and Diseases: Unintended Consequences of Straw-Burning Ban on Ecosystem and Human Health 1: Peking University, China; 2: Jinan Univeristy, China; 3: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China) Environmental regulations aim to reduce pollution, yet they can also reshape ecological systems in ways that affect human health. We study China's ban on burning crop straw, introduced to reduce air pollution from agricultural fires. Combining nationwide inpatient records with the staggered rollout of the policy in a difference-in-differences design, we find that the ban raised hospitalizations for vector-borne diseases by about 50\% and inpatient spending by about 75\%. The evidence points to an ecological mechanism: crop residue left unburned provides habitat for insects and ticks that transmit disease, with effects concentrated among populations with greater agricultural exposure. We estimate the additional hospitalization burden at about \$223 million annually, offsetting close to 5\% of the health gains from cleaner air. The cost is not unavoidable. Where the ban was paired with subsidies for straw recycling, the increase in disease was substantially attenuated, suggesting that complementary residue-management policies can preserve air-quality benefits while reducing unintended health costs. | |