Authors: Bruno Martorano, Laura Metzger (College of William & Mary), Conrad Nunnenmacher, Marco Sanfilippo (University of Turin and Collegio Carlo Alberto)
Between 2008 and 2015, more than one third of the country’s paved trunk road network was built, connecting forest-rich northern regions to major commercial hubs in the south. We find that road construction reduces forest area by 0.0098 km2 per treated grid cell on average, with substantially larger effects in the forest-intensive north (0.051 km2 per cell). At the same time, roads increase economic activity and urbanization, particularly in the more developed southern region. Mechanism analysis suggests that northern forest loss is associated with the expansion of logging roads, while southern development effects operate through firm growth and market integration. The results reveal a spatially asymmetric development–environment trade-off, highlighting how infrastructure investments generate heterogeneous economic and environmental consequences depending on initial local conditions.
