Underneath the goldthe unequal impact of gold deregulation on indigenous people

Resumo

This research examines whether Brazil’s 2013 gold market deregulation deteriorated the health outcomes of Indigenous Peoples. I test the hypothesis that the deregulation increased deaths from infectious diseases among Indigenous populations in municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon with garimpo activity. The empirical strategy combines a main Difference in Differences (DID) model with a complementary DID and a Triple Differences (DDD), all with fixed effects, to probe causality. The results are statistically significant and indicate that, after deregulation, municipalities with garimpo had a 23.09% increase in Indigenous deaths from infectious diseases relative to municipalities without garimpo. The DDD further shows a 22.01% rise in Indigenous infectious-disease mortality in garimpo municipalities relative to non-Indigenous groups, indicating an unequal impact on Indigenous Peoples. These findings suggest that gold market deregulation increased health risks, disproportionately harming Indigenous communities through the expansion of illegal garimpo operations — which underscores the need for better-monitored gold-mining policies that integrate public-health safeguards for local populations. After all, five centuries before the first Europeans arrived, Indigenous People were already here.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Outro

Ano

2025

Instituição

Fundação Getulio Vargas

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Inglês

Acesso

Acesso aberto

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/39066

Palavras-chave

Political economyIllegal miningIndigenous peopleAmazonCiência política