The Long-Run Consequences of Chernobyl: Evidence on Subjective Well-Being, Mental Health and Welfare

Alexander Danzer and Natalia Danzer

Discussion Papers in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper assesses the long-run toll taken by a large-scale technological disaster on welfare, well-being and mental health. We estimate the causal effect of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe after 20 years by linking geographic variation in radioactive fallout to respondents of a nationally representative survey in Ukraine according to their place of residence in 1986. The psychological effects of this nuclear disaster are large and persistent. More affected individuals exhibit poorer subjective well-being, higher depression rates and lower subjective survival probabilities; they rely more on governmental transfers as source of subsistence. We estimate the aggregate annual welfare loss at 6–8% of Ukraine’s GDP highlighting previously ignored externalities of large-scale catastrophes.

Keywords: Chernobyl; nuclear catastrophe; externality; subjective well-being; mental health; depression; transfer dependency; welfare loss; natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D62 H12 I18 I31 Q51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-06-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The long-run consequences of Chernobyl: Evidence on subjective well-being, mental health and welfare (2016)
Working Paper: The Long-Run Consequences of Chernobyl: Evidence on Subjective Well-Being, Mental Health and Welfare (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lmu:muenec:20969

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