Abstract
We examine the historical legacy of the Soviet Union on the current rate of human-induced soil erosion in its successor countries. We use a spatial regression discontinuity design and high-resolution soil erosion data. Our results suggest strong discontinuities in current soil erosion rates along the former border of the Soviet Union. We find that soil erosion in countries that were part of the former Soviet Union is 26% lower than in neighboring countries (0.77 tons per hectare and year). In contrast, we do not find such discontinuity in potential soil erosion under natural vegetation, underlining that this effect is man-made. We show that the main mechanism is a sharp discontinuity in forest dynamics, whereas general economic and demographic differences are less important.
Highlights
Soil is essential for the production of food and many other ecosystem services and is an essential input to the economy (Brausmann and Bretschger, 2018; Wall and Six, 2015)
Using a spatial regression discontinuity design (Wuepper et al, 2020b) and a rich spatial dataset on soil erosion (Borrelli et al, 2017), we estimate whether the countries of the former Soviet Union currently have a significantly lower rate of soil erosion than they would with a different historical legacy.We find a surprisingly large effect: The countries of the fSU have 0.77 t/ha/ more soil erosion, an
We find that the main mechanism behind the historical legacy of the fSU are altered forest land dynamics caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union
Summary
Soil is essential for the production of food and many other ecosystem services and is an essential input to the economy (Brausmann and Bretschger, 2018; Wall and Six, 2015). The effect of institutional and political change on soil erosion is not as well explored as it is for other environmental outcomes Examples from this literature include Copeland and Scott Taylor (2004), who provide a comprehensive literature review on the link between economic growth and decline, trade, and the environment, and empirically, there are e.g. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design (Wuepper et al, 2020b) and a rich spatial dataset on soil erosion (Borrelli et al, 2017), we estimate whether the countries of the former Soviet Union (fSU) currently have a significantly lower rate of soil erosion than they would with a different historical legacy.We find a surprisingly large effect: The countries of the fSU have 0.77 t/ha/ more soil erosion, an. This is followed by an outline of our empirical framework (3), our data (4), results (5), and a conclusion (6)
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