The impact of hydrogeological events on firms: evidence from Italy

Stefano Clò (), Francesco David () and Samuele Segoni ()
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Stefano Clò: University of Florence
Francesco David: Bank of Italy
Samuele Segoni: University of Florence

No 1451, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: Using a novel dataset of natural disasters affecting Italy from 2010 onwards, we investigate the impact of hundreds of hydrogeological events on firms' survival and performance. Despite being less extreme, these events are increasingly frequent and geographically widespread, thus constituting an important but unexplored topic in the natural disasters literature. In order to assess the impact of multiple events occurring over several years, we implement a staggered difference-in-differences design that exploits the variation in the timing of the treatment. Our results show that affected firms have a 7.3 per cent higher probability of exiting the market. If they survive, in the three years after the calamity, firms experience an average decline in their revenues and employment of -4.9 and -2.2 per cent, respectively. These impacts are greater for micro-small, younger and low-tech firms.

Keywords: climate change; natural disasters; floods; landslides; firm performance; survival analysis; staggered diff-in-diff; multiple treatments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 D24 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-04
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