The Impact of Natural and Manmade Disasters on Household Welfare

Yasuyuki Sawada

No 25750, 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: In this paper, we provide selective evidence on the impact of natural and manmade disasters on household welfare. First, we consider ex ante risk management and ex post risk-coping behaviors separately, showing evidence from the Asian economic crisis, earthquakes, and tsunami disasters. Second, we differentiate idiosyncratic risks which can be diversified away through mutual insurance from non-diversifiable aggregate risks which characterize a disaster. We also discuss the difficulties of designing index-type insurance against natural disasters, which are often rare, unforeseen events. Then, we investigate the role of self-insurance against large-scale disasters under which formal or informal mutual insurance mechanisms are largely ineffective. Credit accessibility is identified as one of the key factors facilitating risk-coping strategies. We also discuss public policy issues of emergency aid after disasters.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2006
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Journal Article: The impact of natural and manmade disasters on household welfare (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae06:25750

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.25750

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