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  4. November 2020
  5. Does When You Die Depend on Where You Live? Evidence from Hurricane Katrina

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Does When You Die Depend on Where You Live? Evidence from Hurricane Katrina

  • Tatyana Deryugina
  • David Molitor
American Economic Review
vol. 110, no. 11, November 2020
(pp. 3602–33)
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Abstract

We follow Medicare cohorts to estimate Hurricane Katrina's long-run mortality effects on victims initially living in New Orleans. Including the initial shock, the hurricane improved eight-year survival by 2.07 percentage points. Migration to lower-mortality regions explains most of this survival increase. Those migrating to low-versus high-mortality regions look similar at baseline, but their subsequent mortality is 0.83–1.01 percentage points lower per percentage point reduction in local mortality, quantifying causal effects of place on mortality among this population. Migrants' mortality is also lower in destinations with healthier behaviors and higher incomes but is unrelated to local medical spending and quality.

Citation

Deryugina, Tatyana, and David Molitor. 2020. "Does When You Die Depend on Where You Live? Evidence from Hurricane Katrina." American Economic Review, 110 (11): 3602–33. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20181026

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I12 Health Behavior
  • Q51 Valuation of Environmental Effects
  • Q54 Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
  • R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics