The Impact of the August 2021 Earthquake in Haiti: Evidence from the Social Registry’s Shock Module

We examine recently collected data from Haiti’s social registry new shock module to measure the scale of the August 2021 earthquake’s impact on households and assess the adequacy of the relief response. In the aftermath of the earthquake, a survey module was promptly developed for the national social registry to evaluate the impacts and consequences of wide-reaching exogenous shocks as well as the needs of affected households. Using this rich unique dataset covering the full populationof the Grande Anse Department in Haiti, we find that more than two-thirds of households were affected in one way or another by the August 2021 earthquake. Overall and consistently across dimensions, the impact of the earthquake was more severe for the more socioeconomically disadvantaged households. Less than 10 percent of all earthquake-affected households reported obtaining assistance from a government body or a non-governmental organization. The findings fromthe data analysis provide important lessons on disaster relief to inform future emergency responses