IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/kucawp/229008.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of landslides on household income in tropical regions: a case study from the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Mertens, Kewan
  • Jacobs, Liesbet
  • Maes, Jan
  • Kabaseke, Clovis
  • Maertens, Miet
  • Poesen, Jean
  • Kervyn, Matthieu
  • Vranken, Liesbet

Abstract

Landslides affect millions of people worldwide, but theoretical and empirical studies on the impact of landslides on economic development remain scarce, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study estimates the direct impact of landslides on household income and investigates the presence of specific risk sharing and mitigation strategies towards landslides in the Rwenzori mountains in Western Uganda. An original cross-sectional household survey is used in combination with geographical data to acquire detailed information on livelihoods and on hazards at household level. Ordinary least squares regressions and probit estimations with village fixed effects are used to estimate the impact of landslides and the presence of mitigation strategies in the region. Geographical information at household level is used to disentangle the direct impact from the indirect effects of landslides on household income. We show that the income of affected households is significantly and substantially reduced during the first years after a landslide has occurred. We find that members of recently affected households participate more in wage-employment or in self-employed activities, presumably to address income losses following a landslide. Yet, we see that these jobs do not provide sufficient revenue to compensate for the loss of income from agriculture. Given that landslides cause idiosyncratic shocks, finding a significant direct impact in our study indicates that no adequate risk sharing mechanisms are in place or that these mechanisms are not well functioning in the Rwenzori sub-region. These insights are used to derive policy recommendations for alleviating the impact of landslides in tropical mountainous areas. By quantifying the direct impact of landslides on household income in an agricultural context in Africa this study draws the attention towards a problem that has been broadly underestimated so far and provides a sound scientific base for disaster risk reduction in the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Mertens, Kewan & Jacobs, Liesbet & Maes, Jan & Kabaseke, Clovis & Maertens, Miet & Poesen, Jean & Kervyn, Matthieu & Vranken, Liesbet, 2015. "The impact of landslides on household income in tropical regions: a case study from the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda," Working Papers 229008, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:kucawp:229008
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.229008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/229008/files/BioeconWP_2015_10_submitted.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.229008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lisa Cameron & Manisha Shah, 2015. "Risk-Taking Behavior in the Wake of Natural Disasters," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 484-515.
    2. Sen, Amartya, 2001. "Development as Freedom," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192893307.
    3. Hartwig De Haen & Günter Hemrich, 2007. "The economics of natural disasters: implications and challenges for food security," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 37(s1), pages 31-45, December.
    4. Okuyama, Yasuhide & Sahin, Sebnem, 2009. "Impact estimation of disasters : a global aggregate for 1960 to 2007," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4963, The World Bank.
    5. Wolfe, Barbara L. & Behrman, Jere R., 1984. "Who is schooled in developing countries? The roles of income, parental schooling, sex, residence and family size," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 231-245, June.
    6. Arouri, Mohamed & Nguyen, Cuong & Youssef, Adel Ben, 2015. "Natural Disasters, Household Welfare, and Resilience: Evidence from Rural Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 59-77.
    7. Hulme, David & Shepherd, Andrew, 2003. "Conceptualizing Chronic Poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 403-423, March.
    8. P. Thanapackiam & O. Khairulmaini & A. Fauza, 2012. "Vulnerability and adaptive capacities to slope failure threat: a study of the Klang Valley Region," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 62(3), pages 805-826, July.
    9. Matthew E. Kahn, 2005. "The Death Toll from Natural Disasters: The Role of Income, Geography, and Institutions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 271-284, May.
    10. Glynn, Adam N. & Quinn, Kevin M., 2010. "An Introduction to the Augmented Inverse Propensity Weighted Estimator," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 36-56, January.
    11. Toya, Hideki & Skidmore, Mark, 2007. "Economic development and the impacts of natural disasters," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 20-25, January.
    12. Gloede, Oliver & Menkhoff, Lukas & Waibel, Hermann, 2015. "Shocks, Individual Risk Attitude, and Vulnerability to Poverty among Rural Households in Thailand and Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 54-78.
    13. Stefan Dercon (QEH), "undated". "Vulnerability: a micro perspective," QEH Working Papers qehwps149, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Denis Nseka & Vincent Kakembo & Yazidhi Bamutaze & Frank Mugagga, 2019. "Analysis of topographic parameters underpinning landslide occurrence in Kigezi highlands of southwestern Uganda," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 99(2), pages 973-989, November.
    2. Firre An Suprapto & Bambang Juanda & Ernan Rustiadi & Khursatul Munibah, 2022. "Study of Disaster Susceptibility and Economic Vulnerability to Strengthen Disaster Risk Reduction Instruments in Batu City, Indonesia," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-23, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Becchetti, Leonardo & Castriota, Stefano & Conzo, Pierluigi, 2017. "Disaster, Aid, and Preferences: The Long-run Impact of the Tsunami on Giving in Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 157-173.
    2. Mertens, Kewan & Vranken, Liesbet, 2018. "Investing in land to change your risk exposure? Land transactions and inequality in a landslide prone region," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 437-452.
    3. Muhammad Tariq Iqbal Khan & Sofia Anwar & Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie & Muhammad Rizwan Yaseen & Abdul Majeed Nadeem & Qamar Ali, 2023. "Natural disasters, resilience-building, and risk: achieving sustainable cities and human settlements," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 118(1), pages 611-640, August.
    4. van Bergeijk, P.A.G. & Lazzaroni, S., 2013. "Macroeconomics of natural disasters," ISS Working Papers - General Series 50075, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    5. Gignoux, Jérémie & Menéndez, Marta, 2016. "Benefit in the wake of disaster: Long-run effects of earthquakes on welfare in rural Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 26-44.
    6. Matteo Coronese & Davide Luzzati, 2022. "Economic impacts of natural hazards and complexity science: a critical review," LEM Papers Series 2022/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    7. Arouri, Mohamed & Nguyen, Cuong & Youssef, Adel Ben, 2015. "Natural Disasters, Household Welfare, and Resilience: Evidence from Rural Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 59-77.
    8. Abu Nasar Mohammad Abdullah & Kerstin Katharina Zander & Bronwyn Myers & Natasha Stacey & Stephen Thomas Garnett, 2016. "A short-term decrease in household income inequality in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh, following Cyclone Aila," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 83(2), pages 1103-1123, September.
    9. Ilan Noy & Rio Yonson, 2018. "Economic Vulnerability and Resilience to Natural Hazards: A Survey of Concepts and Measurements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Hongxiu Li, 2017. "Innovation as Adaptation to Natural Disasters," Working Papers 1709, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2017.
    11. Ramón E. López & Vinod Thomas & Pablo Troncoso, 2015. "Climate Change and Natural Disasters," Working Papers wp414, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    12. Joseph, Iverson-Love, 2022. "The effect of natural disaster on economic growth: Evidence from a major earthquake in Haiti," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    13. Victor Hugo De Oliveira & João Mário Santos de França & Francisco Mário Viana Martins, 2020. "The influence of local development on the impact of natural disasters in Northeast Brazil: The case of droughts and floods in the state of Ceará," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(4), pages 1019-1043, August.
    14. Suman K SHARMA, 2010. "Socio-Economic Aspects of Disaster’s Impact: An Assessment of Databases and Methodologies," Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series 1001, Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre.
    15. Peter A. G. van Bergeijk & Sara Lazzaroni, 2015. "Macroeconomics of Natural Disasters: Strengths and Weaknesses of Meta‐Analysis Versus Review of Literature," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(6), pages 1050-1072, June.
    16. Trung X. Hoang & Nga V. T. Le, 2021. "Natural disasters and risk aversion: Evidence from Vietnam," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(3), pages 211-229, August.
    17. Cécile Couharde & Rémi Generoso, 2015. "Hydro-climatic thresholds and economic growth reversals in developing countries: an empirical investigation," EconomiX Working Papers 2015-26, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    18. Rio Yonson & Ilan Noy & JC Gaillard, 2018. "The measurement of disaster risk: An example from tropical cyclones in the Philippines," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 736-765, May.
    19. Noy, Ilan & Vu, Tam Bang, 2010. "The economics of natural disasters in a developing country: The case of Vietnam," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 345-354, August.
    20. Jin, Ling & Chen, Kevin Z. & Yu, Bingxin & Filipski, Mateusz, 2015. "Farmers' Coping Strategies against an Aggregate Shock: Evidence from the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211814, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:kucawp:229008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/alkulbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.