Household Finance after a Natural Disaster: The Case of Hurricane Katrina
- (pp. 199-228)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
Little is known about how affected residents are able to cope with the financial shock of a natural disaster. This paper investigates the impact of flooding on household finance. Spikes in credit card borrowing and overall delinquency rates for the most flooded residents are modest in size and short-lived. Greater flooding results in larger reductions in total debt. Lower debt levels are driven by homeowners using flood insurance to repay their mortgages rather than to rebuild. Mortgage reductions are larger in areas where reconstruction costs exceeded pre-Katrina home values and where mortgages were likely to be originated by nonlocal lenders.Citation
Gallagher, Justin, and Daniel Hartley. 2017. "Household Finance after a Natural Disaster: The Case of Hurricane Katrina." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 9 (3): 199-228. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20140273Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
- G21 Banks; Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
- G22 Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
- Q54 Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment