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Weather-Related House Damage and Subjective Wellbeing

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Climate change is causing weather-related natural disasters to become both more frequent and more severe. We contribute to the literature that estimates the economic impact of these disasters by using Australian data for the period 2009 to 2018 to estimate the impact of experiencing weather-related house damage on three measures of subjective wellbeing. While there is some evidence that poor people experience a sizeable and statistically significant decrease in subjective wellbeing following weather-related house damage, we find little evidence of a significant or sizable effect on average. In contrast, we find that, on average, both separation and job loss have a large and statistically significant impact on subjective wellbeing.

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  • Nicholas Gunby & Tom Coupé, 2021. "Weather-Related House Damage and Subjective Wellbeing," Working Papers in Economics 21/06, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
  • Handle: RePEc:cbt:econwp:21/06
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; subjective wellbeing; weather; disasters;
    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

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