Disastrous Displacement: The Long-Run Impacts of Landslides

Abstract

Natural disasters displace millions of people a year, but little is known about their long-run impacts when institutional capacity to respond to the disaster is low. This paper estimates the long-run impacts of six major landslides in Uganda, where most affected households received little aid. The analysis combines administrative and survey data from nearly the full population of affected and nearby households with exact landslide paths and a geological model of landslide risk to identify impacts relative to nearby households facing similar risk. Landslides substantially increase long-term displacement and migration, and affected households have significantly worse economic and mental health outcomes years afterward. Displacement worsens long-run outcomes, especially when not administered by the government. These findings contrast with many other studies of natural disaster, and suggest that the positive impacts of displacement require a favorable financial and institutional environment unlikely to be found in many countries.

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