Do Natural Disasters Stimulate Individual Saving? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in a Highly Developed Country

Michael Berlemann (), Max Steinhardt () and Jascha Tutt

No 763, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: While various empirical studies have found negative growth-effects of natural disasters, little is yet known about the microeconomic channels through which disasters might affect short- and especially long-term growth. This paper contributes to filling this gap in the literature by studying how natural disasters affect individual saving decisions. This study makes use of a natural experiment created by the European Flood of August 2002. Using micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel that we combine with geographic flood data, we compare the savings behavior of affected and non-affected individuals by using a difference-in-differences approach. Our empirical results indicate that natural disasters depress individual saving decisions, which might be the consequence of a Samaritan`s Dilemma.

Keywords: natural disasters; floods; growth; saving behavior; difference-in-differences approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 H84 O16 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 p.
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.508750.de/diw_sp0763.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Do Natural Disasters Stimulate Individual Saving? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in a Highly Developed Country (2015)
Working Paper: Do Natural Disasters Stimulate Individual Saving? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in a Highly Developed Country (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp763

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