The Chronology of a Disaster : A Review and Assessment of the Value of Acting Early on Household Welfare
When shocks strike they have an immediate and direct impact on life, income, and assets.Two strands of literature can be usefully brought together to generate some initial indicative estimates of the timing of a shock’s impacts, and thus the likely...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/796341557483493173/The-Chronology-of-a-Disaster-A-Review-and-Assessment-of-the-Value-of-Acting-Early-on-Household-Welfare http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31721 |
| Summary: | When shocks strike they have an
immediate and direct impact on life, income, and assets.Two
strands of literature can be usefully brought together to
generate some initial indicative estimates of the timing of
a shock’s impacts, and thus the likely benefit of acting
early to mitigate these impacts: i) Post-disaster and
vulnerability assessments that explain how the impact of
different disasters unfolds, that estimate losses from
assets and income, or that present data on coping mechanisms
used; and ii) Micro econometric studies that assess the cost
imposed by coping strategies on income and growth.An initial
assessment of this literature was undertaken in Clarke and
Hill (2013) for drought in Africa. This paper extends and
updates this review by (i) adding new studies published in
the last five years; and (ii) including studies outside of
Africa and considering other types of disaster in addition
to drought—specifically floods and earthquakes in Asia, and
earthquakes, cyclones, or hurricanes in small island states
(Pacific, Caribbean).This finding is consistent with a
well-published literature showing that variability of income
over time impacts child nutrition and can be linked to
stunting, a condition that causes irrevocable harm by
impairing brain development, leading to lower cognitive and
socioemotional skills, lower levels of educational
attainment, and hence lower incomes.The paper proceeds as
follows. Section two sets out the framework and approach
used. Section three presents evidence on rapid-onset events,
section four on slow-onset events, and section five on
prices. Section six offers some conclusions and
recommendations for future data collection. |
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