Sri Lankan Households a Decade after the Indian Ocean Tsunami

Diana De Alwis and Ilan Noy

No 6136, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We estimate the causal effect of the Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka on household income and consumption eight years after the event, using a quasi-experimental method. A strong association between area-wide tsunami disaster shock and increases in household income and consumption in the long-term emerged from our empirical investigation. Deviating from the common observation on short-term impacts, these results are suggestive of an optimistic potential for some long-lasting potentially successful recovery scenarios. Still, Sri Lanka received a very large amount of external transfers post-tsunami, much larger than is typical for disaster events and one which may not be replicable in other cases. Our findings suggest a more nuanced picture with respect to household consumption impacts. We observe a reduction of food consumption and only find an increase in non-food consumption. The increase in non-food consumption is much smaller than the observed increase in income. We also find that households in high-income regions experienced much better recovery from the disaster.

Keywords: Sri Lanka; tsunami; disaster; household survey; long-run impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Sri Lankan households a decade after the Indian Ocean tsunami (2019)
Working Paper: Sri Lankan households a decade after the Indian Ocean tsunami (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6136

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