Rising Waters, Falling Well-Being: The Effects of the 2013 East German Flood on Subjective Well-Being

Sachintha Fernando, Katharina Kolb and Christoph Wunder

No 1224, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: This paper employs a panel event study design to examine the causal effects of the 2013 flood disaster in East Germany on subjective well-being. We merge geo-spatial flood data with longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to identify individuals in affected municipalities. Our results show that those affected by the flood report a significant life satisfaction drop of 0.17 points on an 11-point scale, which is equivalent to a 2.5% fall from pre-flood levels, in the year after the flood. The effect is more severe in peripheral areas than in central areas, and for low-income individuals than for high-income individuals. However, the effect dissipates by 2015. Additionally, we observe a notable initial decrease in health satisfaction, followed by recovery, while financial satisfaction was largely unaffected.

Keywords: natural disasters; flood; quality of life; life satisfaction; health satisfaction; financial satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 Q51 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 p.
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hap and nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1224

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