Earthquakes and Mental Health

Luisito Bertinelli, Clotilde Mahé () and Eric Strobl ()
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Clotilde Mahé: Universidad de los Andes in Columbia

DEM Discussion Paper Series from Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg

Abstract: Earthquakes may seriously deteriorate mental health by generating fear and stress as a result of economic and human losses. However, mental health has also been found to improve as a result of greater social cohesion in affected communities after the event. We examine the short-run effects of earthquakes on a wide set of mental health outcomes in Ecuador. To this end, we combine hospital admissions, death records, and survey data with precise measures of local seismic activity to exploit the plausibly random spatial and temporal nature of earthquake intensity. We find that damaging earthquakes decrease the propensity to be admitted, the number of days of hospitalisation for mental and behavioural disorders, and deaths due to suicide. Estimates from nationally-representative surveys provide suggestive evidence of increased life satisfaction, trust, and religious observance, and thus provide a possible explanation for the fall in admissions and suicides after an earthquake.

Keywords: Earthquake; Mental health; Ecuador. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 O54 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lam
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http://hdl.handle.net/10993/48427 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Earthquakes and mental health (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:luc:wpaper:21-19

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