IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04986558.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Natural disasters, land and labour

Author

Listed:
  • Johanna Choumert-Nkolo

    (Economic Development Initiatives [EDI])

  • Pascale Phélinas

Abstract

We study the behaviour of farmers living under the threat of the Tungurahua Volcano in Ecuador. Recent eruptions have caused significant damage, including crop loss, death of livestock and destruction of dwellings. We collected a unique data set after a major eruption in 2016. We interviewed 222 farmers in the area affected by the eruption and 260 in a nearby control zone to understand why they choose to remain in the risky zone despite the existence of public programmes aimed at relocating them to safe zones. We examine land and labour, which are farmers' primary productive assets. First, we investigate the capitalisation of volcanic hazards in farmland values and find a negative price premium of 21 per cent compared to the control zone. Second, we explore non-farm labour in response to volcanic risk. Finally, we argue that repeated ash fall events increase the illiquidity of farm household assets, such as farmland, and that agricultural human capital is difficult to convert into non-agricultural capital. Our results convey important information for public policies aimed at supporting adaptation and resilience of people living under the threat of volcanoes and other natural disasters.

Suggested Citation

  • Johanna Choumert-Nkolo & Pascale Phélinas, 2020. "Natural disasters, land and labour," Post-Print hal-04986558, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04986558
    DOI: 10.1093/erae/jbz030
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04986558v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04986558v1/document
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1093/erae/jbz030?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. Fafchamps, Marcel & Udry, Christopher & Czukas, Katherine, 1998. "Drought and saving in West Africa: are livestock a buffer stock?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 273-305, April.
    2. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1993. "Credit Market Constraints, Consumption Smoothing, and the Accumulation of Durable Production Assets in Low-Income Countries: Investment in Bullocks in India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 223-244, April.
    3. Frances Rodríguez-VanGort & David Novelo-Casanova, 2015. "Volcanic risk perception in northern Chiapas, Mexico," 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. 76(2), pages 1281-1295, March.
    4. Thomas Wilson & Jim Cole & Shane Cronin & Carol Stewart & David Johnston, 2011. "Impacts on agriculture following the 1991 eruption of Vulcan Hudson, Patagonia: lessons for recovery," 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. 57(2), pages 185-212, May.
    5. Raymond B. Palmquist, 1989. "Land as a Differentiated Factor of Production: A Hedonic Model and Its Implications for Welfare Measurement," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 65(1), pages 23-28.
    6. Samuel Bazzi & Arya Gaduh & Alexander D. Rothenberg & Maisy Wong, 2016. "Skill Transferability, Migration, and Development: Evidence from Population Resettlement in Indonesia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2658-2698, September.
    7. Zimmerman, Frederick J. & Carter, Michael R., 2003. "Asset smoothing, consumption smoothing and the reproduction of inequality under risk and subsistence constraints," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 233-260, August.
    8. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Binswanger, Hans P, 1993. "Wealth, Weather Risk and the Composition and Profitability of Agricultural Investments," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(416), pages 56-78, January.
    9. Charlotta Mellander & José Lobo & Kevin Stolarick & Zara Matheson, 2015. "Night-Time Light Data: A Good Proxy Measure for Economic Activity?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Reardon, Thomas & Vosti, Stephen A., 1995. "Links between rural poverty and the environment in developing countries: Asset categories and investment poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(9), pages 1495-1506, September.
    11. Udry, Christopher, 1995. "Risk and Saving in Northern Nigeria," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1287-1300, December.
    12. Anjini Kochar, 1999. "Smoothing Consumption by Smoothing Income: Hours-of-Work Responses to Idiosyncratic Agricultural Shocks in Rural India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 50-61, February.
    13. Fafchamps, Marcel, 1993. "Sequential Labor Decisions under Uncertainty: An Estimable Household Model of West-African Farmers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(5), pages 1173-1197, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Johanna Choumert & Pascale Phelinas, 2018. "Volcanic hazards, land and labor," CERDI Working papers halshs-01845041, HAL.
    2. Rose, Elaina, 2001. "Ex ante and ex post labor supply response to risk in a low-income area," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 371-388, April.
    3. Emiliano Magrini & Pierluigi Montalbano, 2012. "Trade openness and vulnerability to poverty: Vietnam in the long-run (1992-2008)," Working Paper Series 3512, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    4. Kazianga, Harounan & Udry, Christopher, 2006. "Consumption smoothing? Livestock, insurance and drought in rural Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 413-446, April.
    5. Zimmerman, Frederick J. & Carter, Michael R., 2003. "Asset smoothing, consumption smoothing and the reproduction of inequality under risk and subsistence constraints," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 233-260, August.
    6. Yoshito Takasaki & Bradford L. Barham & Oliver T. Coomes, 2010. "Smoothing Income against Crop Flood Losses in Amazonia: Rain Forest or Rivers as a Safety Net?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 48-63, February.
    7. Berloffa, Gabriella & Modena, Francesca, 2013. "Income shocks, coping strategies, and consumption smoothing: An application to Indonesian data," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 158-171.
    8. Andrew Dillon & Valerie Mueller & Sheu Salau, 2011. "Migratory Responses to Agricultural Risk in Northern Nigeria," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1048-1061.
    9. Ana María Ibañez & Andrés Moya, 2010. "Do Conflicts Create Poverty Traps? Asset Losses and Recovery for Displaced Households in Colombia," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Crime: Lessons For and From Latin America, pages 137-172, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Mueller, Valerie & Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2010. "Short and long-term effects of the 1998 Bangladesh flood on rural wages," IFPRI discussion papers 956, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. 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.
    12. GODEFROY, Raphaël & LEWIS, Joshua, 2018. "The impact of uncertainty in agriculture," Cahiers de recherche 2018-12, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
    13. Morduch, Jonathan, 1999. "Between the State and the Market: Can Informal Insurance Patch the Safety Net?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 14(2), pages 187-207, August.
    14. Masahiro Shoji, 2008. "How do the poor cope with hardships when mutual assistance is unavailable?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17.
    15. Marco d’Errico & Donato Romano & Rebecca Pietrelli, 2018. "Household resilience to food insecurity: evidence from Tanzania and Uganda," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(4), pages 1033-1054, August.
    16. Fafchamps, Marcel & Lund, Susan, 2003. "Risk-sharing networks in rural Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 261-287, August.
    17. Kurosaki, Takashi & Fafchamps, Marcel, 2002. "Insurance market efficiency and crop choices in Pakistan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 419-453, April.
    18. George Rapsomanikis & Alexander Sarris, 2006. "The Impact of Domestic and International Commodity Price Volatility on Agricultural Income Instability: Ghana, Vietnam and Peru," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2006-04, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing & Nagarajan, Hari K., 2009. "Determinants and Consequences of Land Sales Market Participation: Panel Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 410-421, February.
    20. Andersson, Camilla & Mekonnen, Alemu & Stage, Jesper, 2011. "Impacts of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia on livestock and tree holdings of rural households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 119-126, January.

    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:hal:journl:hal-04986558. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.