Dams, Cropland Productivity, and Economic Development in China

We use satellite, hydrology, and census data from 1990 to 2014 to examine the distributional impacts of dams on cropland productivity and economic development in China. We exploit a county’s river gradient and elevation to deal with the endogeneity of dam location. We find that an additional dam reduces a local county’s cropland net primary production (NPP) by 13.7% and reduces a local county’s night-time light (NTL) by 1.8%. We also find that an additional dam increases a downstream county’s NPP by 0.5% and slightly increases a downstream county’s NTL. This study provides the first analysis of the impact of dams on agriculture and economic growth in China and highlights dams’ distributional impacts