Vashold, L., Pirich, G., Heinze, M., & Kuschnig, N. (2026). Journal of Development Economics, 179, 103671.
Abstract. Mining operations in Africa are expanding rapidly, creating negative externalities that remain poorly understood. In this paper, we provide causal evidence for the impact of water pollution from mines on downstream vegetation and agriculture across the continent. We exploit a natural experiment, where mines cause a discontinuity in water pollution along river networks, to compare vegetation health in upstream and downstream locations. We find that mines significantly reduce peak vegetation downstream by 1.3–1.5%, impairing the productivity of over 74,000 km² of croplands. These reductions correspond to annual losses of 91,000–205,000 tons of cereal crops in the immediate vicinity alone, with particularly severe effects in fertile regions and areas where gold mining predominates. Our findings highlight substantial externalities of mining and demonstrate an urgent need for oversight and regulation.
This is a very early stage project. A description will follow soon.
Summer 2025, Summer 2026 (together with Sannah Tijani)
Preliminaries Formalities Introduction Simple Linear Regression Multiple Linear Regression Testing and Inference More on Multiple Regression Heteroskedasticity
Preliminaries Formalities Introduction Simple Linear Regression Multiple Linear Regression Testing and Inference More on Multiple Regression Heteroskedasticity
Winter 2025/26 (together with Sannah Tijani), Winter 2026/27 (together with Ines Kusmenko)
Preliminaries Formalities Statistical Learning Causality and DAGs Threats to Causal Identification Instrumental Variables Non-Linear Models and Maximum Likelihood More on Identification
Note that the first part of the slide set on causality and DAGs, as well as the slide sets on threats to identification and non-linear models were created by Sannah Tijani.
Summer 2026 (together with Sannah Tijani)
Preliminaries Formalities Time Series and Autocorrelation Panel Data and Further Issues
Note that roughly the first half of each slide set was created by Sannah Tijani.
Summer 2026 (together with Simon Heß)
Winter 2024/25 (together with Sebastian Lutz)
I made the script behind this web app to create randomized exams out of a question pool, and to sort and calculate grade totals for graded and scanned pages afterwards. The web app facilitates using this script.
Together with Simon Heß, I run this Matrix homeserver to provide colleagues at our department a place to chat, in particular also with external co-authors.
This simple web app, which is available to anyone with a WU employee email address, facilitates creation and distribution of collaborative web calendars, without relying on a proprietary service such as Google Calendar or Outlook.
I was walking in a park and wanted to know what kind of tree I had walked past. Upon discovering that the web app provided by the city of vienna for its tree database is unusable, I made this one instead.
The (messy) LaTeX Beamer template I use for slides.
Charts of introductory macroeconomic models (based on the textbook by Blanchard) with interactive sliders, created with GeoGebra and available in English and German.
Max Heinze
Welthandelsplatz 1
1020 Vienna, Austria