Data and Code for: Disastrous Displacement: The Long-Run Impacts of Landslides

This deposit includes data and code to replicate the results of "Disastrous Displacement:The Long-Run Impacts of Landslides" by Travis Baseler and Jakob Hennig. Abstract: Natural disasters displace millions of people a year, but their economic impacts are difficult to study when the affected population becomes dispersed. This paper estimates the long-run impacts of six landslides in Uganda on nearly the full affected population. The analysis exploits the sharp boundaries between households residing in a landslide path and those on the same slopes but outside the path. Years after the landslides, affected households earn 50% less income and are 18 percentage points less likely to report being satisfied with their lives. Further analysis points to social capital as a determinant of successful post-disaster recovery. Response Rates: 93% in main sample, 91% in broader sample The sample for our study includes the four largest landslide sites in Bududa since 2010. We worked with local aid officers to identify the villages located on the slopes on which these landslides occurred. For each of these villages, we collected a list of households residing there at the time of the landslide from past population registers maintained by local officials. These lists, which include information on the full affected population regardless of whether they moved away, form our study sample. We also collected data from two other landslide sites in adjacent districts.
The population registers produced a list of 975 households, of which 652 were located in Bududa. We supplemented this list using snowball sampling by inquiring about neighboring households not on the household register during each household survey. 26 new households (23 of which were in Bududa) were identified through this process.
Of the 675 households we identified as residing in our study villages in Bududa prior to the relevant landslides, we successfully surveyed 630, or 93%. We successfully collected GPS readings at the pre-landslide location for all but five of these households, producing a final primary sample of 625 households across 20 villages. In the broader sample which includes Manafwa and Sironko districts, we successfully surveyed 913 out of 1,001 households, or 91%, spread across 30 villages. Households on slopes affected by six landslides in Bududa, Sironko, and Manafwa districts. face-to-face interview; telephone interview;