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.
Summer 2025, Summer 2026
Module 00: Preliminaries · View German Slides · View English Slides
Module 0: Formalities · View German Slides · View English Slides
Module 1: Introduction · View German Slides · View English Slides
Module 2: Simple Linear Regression · View German Slides · View English Slides
Module 3: Multiple Linear Regression · View German Slides · View English Slides
Module 4: Testing and Inference · View German Slides · View English Slides
Module 5: More on Multiple Regression · View German Slides · View English Slides
Module 6: Heteroskedasticity · View German Slides · View English Slides
Winter 2025/26, Winter 2026/27
Module 00: Preliminaries · View Slides
Module 0: Formalities · View Slides
Module 1: Statistical Learning and the Role of Econometrics · View Slides
Module 2: Causality and DAGs · View Slides
Module 3: Threats to Causal Identification · View Slides
Module 4: Instrumental Variables · View Slides
Module 5: Non-Linear Models and Maximum Likelihood · View Slides
Module 6: More Identification Strategies · View Slides
Note that the first part of Slide Set 2, as well as Slide Sets 3 and 5 were created by Sannah Tijani.
Summer 2026
Module 00: Preliminaries · View Slides
Module 0: Formalities · View Slides
Module 1: Time Series and Autocorrelation · View Slides
Module 2: Panel Data and Further Issues · View Slides
Note that roughly the first half of each slide set was created by Sannah Tijani.
Summer 2026
Winter 2024/25
Charts of introductory macroeconomic models (based on the textbook by Blanchard) with interactive sliders, created with GeoGebra and available in English and German.
The (messy) LaTeX Beamer template I use for slides.