Natural Disasters and Household Welfare : Evidence from Vietnam

As natural disasters hit with increasing frequency, especially in coastal areas, it is imperative to better understand how much natural disasters affect economies and their people. This requires disaggregated measures of natural disasters that can be reliably linked to households, the first challenge this paper tackles. In particular, a methodology is illustrated to create natural disaster and hazard maps from first hand, geo-referenced meteorological data. In a second step, the repeated cross-sectional national living standard measurement surveys (2002, 2004, and 2006) from Vietnam are augmented with the natural disaster measures derived in the first phase, to estimate the welfare effects associated with natural disasters. The results indicate that short-run losses from natural disasters can be substantial, with riverine floods causing welfare losses of up to 23 percent and hurricanes reducing welfare by up to 52 percent inside cities with a population over 500,000. Households are better able to cope with the short-run effects of droughts, largely due to irrigation. There are also important long-run negative effects, in Vietnam mostly so for droughts, flash floods, and hurricanes. Geographical differentiation in the welfare effects across space and disaster appears partly linked to the functioning of the disaster relief system, which has so far largely eluded households in areas regularly affected by hurricane force winds.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Thomas, Timothy, Christiaensen, Luc, Do, Quy Toan, Trung, Le Dang
Language:English
Published: 2010-12-01
Subjects:ADAPTATION, AGRICULTURAL DROUGHT, AGRICULTURAL DROUGHTS, ANISOTROPY, BANKS, CALCULATION, CLIMATE, CLIMATOLOGY, CLOUD COVER, CLOUDS, COASTAL DISASTERS, COASTAL FLOOD, COASTAL FLOODS, COPING CAPACITY, CRU, CYCLONE TRACKS, DAMAGES, DISASTER AID, DISASTER ASSISTANCE, DISASTER MANAGEMENT, DISASTER PREVENTION, DISASTER PRONE COUNTRIES, DISASTER RECOVERY, DISASTER REDUCTION, DISASTER RELIEF, DISASTER RISK, DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT, DISASTER RISK REDUCTION, DISASTER RISKS, DISASTER TYPES, DROUGHT, DROUGHT EVENTS, DROUGHT FREQUENCY, DROUGHT INDICES, DROUGHT RISK, DROUGHTS, DRY MONTHS, ELECTRICITY, EXTREME EVENTS, EXTREME WEATHER, EXTREME WEATHER EVENT, EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS, FAMINES, FLOOD, FLOOD CONTROL, FLOOD EVENTS, FLOOD PRONE AREAS, FLOODED, FLOODING, FLOODS, FOOD AID, HEAVY RAIN, HEAVY RAINFALL, HURRICANE, HURRICANES, HYDROLOGICAL DROUGHTS, IMPACTS OF DROUGHTS, INSURANCE, INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY FOR DISASTER REDUCTION, LAKES, LAND USE, LANDSLIDES, LOSSES FROM FLOODS, METEOROLOGICAL DATA, MITIGATION, NATURAL DISASTER, NATURAL DISASTERS, NATURAL HAZARD, NATURAL HAZARDS, PP, PRECIPITATION, RADIOACTIVITY, RECONSTRUCTION, RELIEF EFFORTS, RISK ANALYSIS, SAFETY, SAVINGS, SELF INSURANCE, STORM, STORM TRACKS, STORMS, TEMPERATURE, TROPICAL CYCLONE, TROPICAL CYCLONES, TROPICAL STORM, TROPICAL STORMS, WATER SHORTAGES, WATER TANK, WEATHER PATTERNS, WIND, WIND SPEED, WIND SPEEDS,
Online Access:http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20101203104559
https://hdl.handle.net/10986/3974
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