Agricultural Trade, Institutions, and Depletion of Natural Resources

Globalization can lead to either conservation or depletion of natural resources that are used in the production of traded goods. Rising prices may lead to better resource man- agement. Alternatively, stronger incentives to extract these resources may exacerbate their decline- especially in open access institutional frameworks. We examine the impact of agricultural trade promotion on the groundwater extraction in India using nationally representative data from 1996-2005. We nd evidence that trade promotion leads to de- pletion of groundwater reserves. Access to world markets does not result in emergence of institutions that would enable protection of the resource.