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Well-being effects of extreme weather events in the United States

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  • Ahmadiani, Mona
  • Ferreira, Susana

Abstract

The increase in weather and climate disasters in recent years has prompted an interest in analyzing their consequences and the mitigation and adaptation measures that can help minimize their potentially large impacts on individuals’ welfare. We match thirty-one billion-dollar disasters with individual survey data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to estimate the effect of extreme weather events on the subjective well-being of U.S. residents. Our results indicate that natural disasters have a negative and robust impact on subjective well-being in the affected communities, and that, on average, this impact peaks 6 months after the event, and then decays over time. We then investigate the attenuating impact of health care access, flood insurance, and governmental assistance programs and find a partial compensating role for risk-transfer and relief measures. We also find that stronger emotional and social support mitigates the negative impact of natural disasters.

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  • Ahmadiani, Mona & Ferreira, Susana, 2021. "Well-being effects of extreme weather events in the United States," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:64:y:2021:i:c:s092876552030422x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2020.101213
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    Cited by:

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    2. Jones, Benjamin A., 2023. "Dust storms and human well-being," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Berlemann, Michael & Eurich, Marina, 2021. "Natural hazard risk and life satisfaction – Empirical evidence for hurricanes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Ahmadiani, Mona & Hyde, Adam S. & Jackson, Jeremy, 2019. "Creative Destruction, Job Reallocation, and Subjective Well-Being," 2019 Annual Meeting, July 21-23, Atlanta, Georgia 290966, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Subjective well-being; Extreme weather; Disasters; Climate change; Mental health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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