Evaluating Wildfire Exposure: Using Wellbeing Data to Estimate and Value the Impacts of Wildfire

David Johnston, Yasin Onder, Habibur Rahman and Mehmet Ulubasoglu

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper estimates and quantifies the wellbeing effects of the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires, the deadliest wildfire event in Australia's known history. Using subjective wellbeing data from a nationally representative longitudinal study and adopting an individual fixed-effects approach, our results identify a significant reduction in life satisfaction for individuals residing in close proximity of the wildfires. The negative wellbeing effect is valued at A$52,300 per annum; corresponding to 80% of the average annual income of a full-time employed adult. The satisfaction domain most negatively affected is how safe the person feels, and the group most affected are people with low social support. A delayed adverse mental health effect is also identified.

Keywords: Wildfires; georeferencing; life satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 I31 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-hap, nep-hea and nep-isf
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Evaluating wildfire exposure: Using wellbeing data to estimate and value the impacts of wildfire (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:109652

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