How palm oil industry is having a devastating impact on Indonesia's health, rainforests, and labor market

Palm oil is an essential commodity in Indonesia. However, despite the importance of palm oil for Indonesia's economy, on the contrary, this sector could also harm society as palm oil industries have incentives to burn the forest for extensive land clearing, creating forest fire, and air pollution. This study estimates palm oil companies' impact on forest fires, air pollution, health outcomes, and labor market consequences in Indonesia. This study uses data from The Indonesia National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS), Universal Public Insurance Claim Data from Social Security Administrator (BPJS), and Ministry of Forestry and Environment Statistics. In addition, this study also uses municipality-level data to calculate forest fire and individual-level data to estimate health and labor outcomes. Finally, this study employs ordinary least squares (OLS) and matching methods to assess palm oil company's impact on forest fire, health, and labor outcomes. Estimation result suggests palm oil company significantly increases forest fire land area. Further, it also increases the probability of asthma, increases the likelihood of inpatient, and substantially decreases decision to work-more considerable negative health impact for children and elderly, more vulnerable group to forest fire pollution. Moreover, forest fire increases inpatient for the asthmatic individual and all other individuals who experience general respiratory symptoms.