The Cost of Being Under the Weather: Droughts, Floods, and Health-Care Costs in Sri Lanka

Diana De Alwis () and Ilan Noy
Additional contact information
Diana De Alwis: Research Associate, School of Economics and Finance, Victoria University of Wellington.

Asian Development Review, 2019, vol. 36, issue 2, 185-214

Abstract: We measure the impact of extreme weather events—droughts and floods—on health-care utilization and expenditures in Sri Lanka. We find that frequently occurring local floods and droughts impose a significant health risk when individuals are directly exposed to these hazards. Individuals are also at risk when their communities are exposed even if they themselves are unaffected. These impacts, especially the indirect spillover effects to households not directly affected, are associated with land use in affected regions and access to sanitation and hygiene. Finally, both direct and indirect health risks associated with floods and droughts have an economic cost: our estimates suggest that Sri Lanka spends $19 million per year directly on health-care costs associated with floods and droughts. This cost is divided almost equally between the public purse and households, with 83% of it spent on flood-related health care and the rest on drought-related health care. In Sri Lanka, both the frequency and intensity of droughts and floods are likely to increase because of climatic change. Consequently, the health burden associated with these events will likely increase.

Keywords: drought; flood; health-care costs; health impact; Sri Lanka (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/adev_a_00136 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Cost of Being Under the Weather: Droughts, Floods, and Health Care Costs in Sri Lanka (2017)
Working Paper: The cost of being under the weather: Droughts, floods, and health care costs in Sri Lanka (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tpr:adbadr:v:36:y:2019:i:2:p:185-214

Access Statistics for this article

Asian Development Review is currently edited by Yasuyuki Sawada and Naoyuki Yoshino

More articles in Asian Development Review from MIT Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The MIT Press ().