IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v180y2021ics0921800919317136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Floods, flood policies and changes in welfare and inequality: Evidence from Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Tovar Reaños, Miguel A.

Abstract

Floods in Germany have caused significant economic damage and are expected to become more frequent. The economic damage expected as a result of floods will affect households differently across income levels. A method, rooted in economic theory, is proposed to estimate changes in household welfare and income inequality resulting from expected flood damage. It is found that welfare losses after floods disproportionately harm low income households and increase inequality by 0.14%. Families with dependent children and householders of retirement age in the lowest income quartile are the most affected. In order to collect additional resources to cover the cost of the financial relief, the of additional income, real estate and energy taxes are investigated. These instruments yield a reduction in income inequality. It is also shown that rewarding investment in mitigation and insurance, and supporting low income households can be jointly achieved when re-allocating additional energy-tax revenues.

Suggested Citation

  • Tovar Reaños, Miguel A., 2021. "Floods, flood policies and changes in welfare and inequality: Evidence from Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:180:y:2021:i:c:s0921800919317136
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106879
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919317136
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106879?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James M. Poterba, 1991. "Is the Gasoline Tax Regressive?," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 145-164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Xavier Labandeira & José M. Labeaga & Miguel Rodríguez, 2006. "A Residential Energy Demand System for Spain," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 87-112.
    3. Aaberge, Rolf & Langørgen, Audun & Mogstad, Magne & Østensen, Marit, 2008. "The Impact of Local Public Services and Geographical Cost of Living Differences on Poverty Estimates," IZA Discussion Papers 3686, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Unterberger, Christian & Hudson, Paul & Botzen, W.J. Wouter & Schroeer, Katharina & Steininger, Karl W., 2019. "Future Public Sector Flood Risk and Risk Sharing Arrangements: An Assessment for Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 153-163.
    5. Marvin Phaup & Charlotte Kirschner, 2010. "Budgeting for disasters: Focusing on the good times," OECD Journal on Budgeting, OECD Publishing, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24.
    6. Anh Tuan Bui & Mardi Dungey & Cuong Viet Nguyen & Thu Phuong Pham, 2014. "The impact of natural disasters on household income, expenditure, poverty and inequality: evidence from Vietnam," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(15), pages 1751-1766, May.
    7. Paul Raschky & Hannelore Weck-Hannemann, 2007. "Charity hazard - A real hazard to natural disaster insurance," Working Papers 2007-04, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    8. Sekulova, Filka & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2016. "Floods and happiness: Empirical evidence from Bulgaria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 51-57.
    9. Seong Yun & Brigitte S. Waldorf, 2016. "The Day After The Disaster: Forced Migration And Income Loss After Hurricanes Katrina And Rita," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 420-441, June.
    10. Billette de Villemeur, Etienne & Leroux, Justin, 2019. "Tradable climate liabilities: A thought experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Keerthiratne, Subhani & Tol, Richard S.J., 2018. "Impact of natural disasters on income inequality in Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 217-230.
    12. Aaberge, Rolf & Bhuller, Manudeep & Langørgen, Audun & Mogstad, Magne, 2010. "The distributional impact of public services when needs differ," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 549-562, October.
    13. Jarl Kind & W.J. Wouter Botzen & Jeroen C.J.H. Aerts, 2017. "Accounting for risk aversion, income distribution and social welfare in cost‐benefit analysis for flood risk management," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(2), March.
    14. Jacobs, Bas & van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2019. "Redistribution and pollution taxes with non-linear Engel curves," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 198-226.
    15. Arthur Lewbel & Krishna Pendakur, 2009. "Tricks with Hicks: The EASI Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 827-863, June.
    16. David Klenert & Linus Mattauch & Emmanuel Combet & Ottmar Edenhofer & Cameron Hepburn & Ryan Rafaty & Nicholas Stern, 2018. "Making carbon pricing work for citizens," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(8), pages 669-677, August.
    17. Baker, Paul & Blundell, Richard & Micklewright, John, 1989. "Modelling Household Energy Expenditures Using Micro-data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 720-738, September.
    18. Mr. Serhan Cevik & Guohua Huang, 2018. "How to Manage the Fiscal Costs of Natural Disasters," IMF Fiscal Affairs Department 2018/003, International Monetary Fund.
    19. Andrew Dlugolecki, 2008. "Climate Change and the Insurance Sector," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 33(1), pages 71-90, January.
    20. Serhan Cevik & Guohua Huang, 2018. "How to Manage the Fiscal Costs of Natural Disasters," IMF Fiscal Affairs Department HTN 18/03, International Monetary Fund.
    21. Masozera, Michel & Bailey, Melissa & Kerchner, Charles, 2007. "Distribution of impacts of natural disasters across income groups: A case study of New Orleans," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2-3), pages 299-306, August.
    22. West, Sarah E., 2004. "Distributional effects of alternative vehicle pollution control policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3-4), pages 735-757, March.
    23. Pothen, Frank & Tovar Reaños, Miguel Angel, 2018. "The Distribution of Material Footprints in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 237-251.
    24. Fullerton Don & West Sarah E, 2010. "Tax and Subsidy Combinations for the Control of Car Pollution," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-33, February.
    25. Sarah E. West, 2005. "Equity Implications of Vehicle Emissions Taxes," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 39(1), pages 1-24, January.
    26. Creedy, John & Sleeman, Catherine, 2006. "Carbon taxation, prices and welfare in New Zealand," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 333-345, May.
    27. King, Mervyn A., 1983. "Welfare analysis of tax reforms using household data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 183-214, July.
    28. von Möllendorff, Charlotte & Hirschfeld, Jesko, 2016. "Measuring impacts of extreme weather events using the life satisfaction approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 108-116.
    29. Pashardes, Panos & Pashourtidou, Nicoletta & Zachariadis, Theodoros, 2014. "Estimating welfare aspects of changes in energy prices from preference heterogeneity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 58-66.
    30. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Quadratic Engel Curves And Consumer Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 527-539, November.
    31. Andrea Leiter & Harald Oberhofer & Paul Raschky, 2009. "Creative Disasters? Flooding Effects on Capital, Labour and Productivity Within European Firms," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(3), pages 333-350, July.
    32. Tovar Reaños, Miguel A. & Wölfing, Nikolas M., 2018. "Household energy prices and inequality: Evidence from German microdata based on the EASI demand system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 84-97.
    33. Warr, Peter & Aung, Lwin Lwin, 2019. "Poverty and inequality impact of a natural disaster: Myanmar’s 2008 cyclone Nargis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 446-461.
    34. Arthur Lewbel, 1989. "Identification and Estimation of Equivalence Scales under Weak Separability," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(2), pages 311-316.
    35. Eiji Yamamura, 2015. "The Impact of Natural Disasters on Income Inequality: Analysis using Panel Data during the Period 1970 to 2004," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 359-374, September.
    36. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    37. Nikodinoska, Dragana & Schröder, Carsten, 2016. "On the emissions–inequality and emissions–welfare trade-offs in energy taxation: Evidence on the German car fuels tax," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 206-233.
    38. Paul Hudson & W. J. Wouter Botzen & Jennifer Poussin & Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts, 2019. "Impacts of Flooding and Flood Preparedness on Subjective Well-Being: A Monetisation of the Tangible and Intangible Impacts," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 665-682, February.
    39. Brenden Jongman & Stefan Hochrainer-Stigler & Luc Feyen & Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts & Reinhard Mechler & W. J. Wouter Botzen & Laurens M. Bouwer & Georg Pflug & Rodrigo Rojas & Philip J. Ward, 2014. "Increasing stress on disaster-risk finance due to large floods," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(4), pages 264-268, April.
    40. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1980. "An Almost Ideal Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 312-326, June.
    41. Sommer, Mark & Kratena, Kurt, 2017. "The Carbon Footprint of European Households and Income Distribution," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 62-72.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Moritz Odersky & Max Löffler, 2024. "Differential Exposure to Climate Change? Evidence from the 2021 Floods in Germany," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(3), pages 551-576, September.
    2. Sara Lindersson & Elena Raffetti & Maria Rusca & Luigia Brandimarte & Johanna Mård & Giuliano Di Baldassarre, 2023. "The wider the gap between rich and poor the higher the flood mortality," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(8), pages 995-1005, August.
    3. Maike Beier & Jessica Gerstendörfer & Katja Mendzigall & Dirk Pavlik & Peter Trute & Robert von Tils, 2022. "Climate Impact and Model Approaches of Blue-Green Infrastructure Measures for Neighborhood Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-31, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tovar Reanos, Miguel, 2020. "Car ownership and the distributional and environmental policies to reduce driving behavior," Papers WP673, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    2. Tovar Reaños, Miguel A. & Lynch, Muireann Á., 2022. "Measuring carbon tax incidence using a fully flexible demand system. Vertical and horizontal effects using Irish data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    3. Tovar Reaños, Miguel A. & Wölfing, Nikolas M., 2018. "Household energy prices and inequality: Evidence from German microdata based on the EASI demand system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 84-97.
    4. van der Ploeg, Frederick & Rezai, Armon & Tovar Reanos, Miguel, 2022. "Gathering support for green tax reform: Evidence from German household surveys," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Pothen, Frank & Tovar Reaños, Miguel Angel, 2018. "The Distribution of Material Footprints in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 237-251.
    6. Tovar Reaños, Miguel & Lynch, Muireann Á., 2019. "Distributional impacts of carbon taxation and revenue recycling: a behavioural microsimulation," Papers WP626, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    7. Tovar Reaños, Miguel A. & Sommerfeld, Katrin, 2018. "Fuel for inequality: Distributional effects of environmental reforms on private transport," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 28-43.
    8. Schulte, Isabella & Heindl, Peter, 2017. "Price and income elasticities of residential energy demand in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 512-528.
    9. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2021. "Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing: A Meta-Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 78(1), pages 1-42, January.
    10. Jacobs, Bas & van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2019. "Redistribution and pollution taxes with non-linear Engel curves," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 198-226.
    11. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2018. "Distributional Impacts of Climate Mitigation Policies - a Meta-Analysis," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1776, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Frederick van der Ploeg & Armon Rezai & Miguel Tovar, 2024. "Third-Best Carbon Taxation: Trading off emission cuts, equity, and efficiency," Economics Series Working Papers 1050, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    13. Eisner, Anna & Kulmer, Veronika & Kortschak, Dominik, 2021. "Distributional effects of carbon pricing when considering household heterogeneity: An EASI application for Austria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    14. Silvia Tiezzi & Stefano F. Verde, 2017. "The signaling effect of gasoline taxes and its distributional implications," RSCAS Working Papers 2017/06, European University Institute.
    15. Javier García-Enríquez & Cruz A. Echevarría, 2018. "Demand for culture in Spain and the 2012 VAT rise," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(3), pages 469-506, August.
    16. Xavier Labandeira & José M. Labeaga & Miguel Rodríguez, "undated". "Microsimulating the Effects of Household Energy Price Changes in Spain," Studies on the Spanish Economy 196, FEDEA.
    17. Renner, Sebastian & Lay, Jann & Schleicher, Michael, 2017. "The Effects of Energy Price Changes: Heterogeneous Welfare Impacts, Energy Poverty, and CO2 Emissions in Indonesia," GIGA Working Papers 302, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    18. Böhringer, Christoph & García-Muros, Xaquín & González-Eguino, Mikel, 2022. "Who bears the burden of greening electricity?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    19. Reaños, Miguel Tovar & De Bruin, Kelly & Meier, David & Yakut, Aykut Mert, 2022. "Economic and Distributional Impacts of turning the Value-Added Tax into a Carbon Tax," Papers WP739, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    20. Silvia Tiezzi & Stefano F. Verde, 2019. "The signaling effect of gasoline taxes and its distributional implications," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(2), pages 145-169, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Distributional effects; Microsimulation; Flood risk; Government policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:180:y:2021:i:c:s0921800919317136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.