Does economic development have an unavoidable ecological cost? We examine the ecological impacts of one of India's signature place-based economic policies involving massive tax benefits for new industrial and infrastructure development following the creation of the new state of Uttarakhand. The...

In 2002 the Indian government targeted the new state of Uttarakhand with massive improvements in infrastructure, a generous investment subsidy, and a complete exemption from corporate and excise taxes. I estimate the causal effect of this policy on economic development by exploiting the spatial...