Flooded cities

Adriana Kocornik-Mina, Thomas K.J. McDermott, Guy Michaels and Ferdinand Rauch

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Does economic activity move away from areas that are at high risk of recurring shocks? We examine this question in the context of floods, which displaced more than 650 million people worldwide in the last 35 years. We study large urban floods using spatially detailed inundation maps and night lights data spanning the globe's cities. We find that low-elevation urban areas are flooded more frequently, and yet they concentrate more economic activity per square kilometer. When cities are flooded, low-elevation areas recover as rapidly as those higher up. With the exception of recently populated urban areas, we find little permanent movement of economic activity in response to floods.

Keywords: Urbanization; Flooding; Climate change; Urban recovery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 Q54 R11 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2020-04-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-env, nep-gen, nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1, April, 2020, 12(2), pp. 35 - 66. ISSN: 1945-7782

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100031/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Flooded Cities (2020)
Working Paper: Flooded Cities (2016)
Working Paper: Flooded Cities (2015)
Working Paper: Flooded Cities (2015)
Working Paper: Flooded cities (2015)
Working Paper: Flooded cities (2015)
Working Paper: Flooded Cities (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:100031

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