The Impact of Floods on Firm Performance and Relocation

Nicoletta Berardi, Paul Vertier, Chloé Zapha, Elie Malhaire and Jules Tapin

Working papers from Banque de France

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of floods on firms, combining their financial information and exact location with administrative data on floods at the municipality level between 2004 and 2024 in France. For firms located in municipalities hit by a flood, both survival rates and sales deteriorate: their chances of survival drop by 2%, and their sales by 8%, for up to five years after the event. Moreover, these firms are more likely to relocate to safer areas in other municipalities. These effects are driven by intense floods, lasting at least one week. We find evidence of both direct and indirect effects: firms in 1-in-100 years floodplain are more affected than others, but even floods occurring in neighboring municipalities decrease firms’ economic performance, with magnitudes attenuating as distance increases.

Keywords: Firm Performance; Floods; Natural Disasters; Location Decision (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 G30 L20 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.banque-france.fr/system/files/2026-06/WP1047_0.pdf

Related works:
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:bfr:banfra:1047

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working papers from Banque de France Banque de France 31 Rue Croix des Petits Champs LABOLOG - 49-1404 75049 PARIS. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael brassart ().