Let the Rich Be Flooded: The Unequal Impact of Hurricane Harvey on Household Debt

Billings, Stephen B.; Gallagher, Emily; Ricketts, Lowell R.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3396611

Cited by 29 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Previous work shows that severe natural disasters cause sustained out-migration (Vigdor, 2008;Strobl, 2010;Billings et al, 2019;Boustan et al, 2020). Our research provides new evidence that adverse shocks to municipal finances explain part of the reason populations do not return to areas affected by major hurricanes in their immediate aftermath.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 51%

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Local Public Finance Dynamics and Hurricane Shocks

Jerch¹,

Kahn²,

Lin³

2020

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the Wharton Risk Center, OSWEET, and the UEA 2020 meetings for extremely helpful comments. We also thank Marc Joffe and Natalie Cohen for their generous insights on municipal bond markets. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 51%

“…In contrast,Billings et al (2019) find that credit delinquency rates are higher after hurricane strikes among residents that are less likely to own homes relative to home owners.…”

mentioning

confidence: 60%

Local Public Finance Dynamics and Hurricane Shocks

Jerch¹,

Kahn²,

Lin³

2020

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“…For example, the impact of being denied an abortion on collections is as large as the effect of being evicted (Humphries et al, 2019) and the impact on unpaid bills is several times larger than the effect of losing health insurance (Argys et al, 2019). Although imprecisely estimated in our setting, it appears that denying a woman an abortion reduces her credit score by more than the impact of a health shock resulting in a hospitalization (Dobkin et al, 2018) or being exposed to high levels of flooding following Hurricane Harvey (Billings et al, 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

The Economic Consequences of Being Denied an Abortion

Miller¹,

Wherry²,

Foster³

2020

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Restrictions on abortion are pervasive, yet relatively little is known about the financial and economic impact of being denied an abortion on pregnant women who seek one. This paper evaluates the economic consequences of being denied an abortion on the basis of the gestational age of the pregnancy. Our analysis relies on new linkages to administrative credit report data for participants in the Turnaway Study, the first study to collect high-quality, longitudinal data on women receiving or being denied a wanted abortion in the United States. Some women had pregnancies close to the facility's gestational age limit, but below it, and received a wanted abortion (Near Limit Group). A second group of women had pregnancies just over the facility's gestational age limit and were turned away without receiving an abortion (Turnaway Group). We link study participants to ten years of credit report data including several years prior to their recruitment into the study. Using these data, we compare differences in credit report outcomes for the two groups of women over time using an event study design. We find that the trajectories for these outcomes are similar for the two groups of women prior to the abortion encounter. However, following their visit to the abortion provider, we find evidence of a large and persistent increase in financial distress for the women who were denied an abortion that is sustained for several years. Being denied an abortion increases the amount of debt 30 days or more past due by 78 percent and increases negative public records, such as bankruptcies and evictions, by 81 percent. We conduct additional analyses that use a regression discontinuity design to compare outcomes for women just above and just below the gestation limit at each clinic and find results that are consistent with the event study analyses. We explore the mechanisms behind these findings by taking advantage of existing survey data collected for the study participants and compare the effects sizes we document to those experienced by similar women following a "typical" birth. Our results highlight important financial and economic consequences of restrictions on abortion access.

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“…Natural disasters can worsen the shortage of affordable public housing, because they often cause property damage, resulting in an inward shift in the supply of public housing units. Disasters may also increase the demand for public housing assistance because even those who do not already rely on public housing may lose homes or suffer severe income or financial shocks during the disaster and may have to resort to public housing afterward (Billings et al, 2019). 1 This outward shift in demand, coupled with decreased supply, can intensify the shortage of public housing, increase the waiting time, and also affect tenant-paid rents if no additional policy intervention occurs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We further examine the effectiveness of federal disaster aid in restoring local public housing 1 Research shows that disasters often negatively affect individual finances, cause higher bankruptcy rates among financially constrained people, and may force some homeowners to default on their mortgage, sell their properties and rely on low-cost rental housing (Billings et al, 2019;Ouazad & Kahn, 2019a). For example, Billings et al (2019) estimated that Hurricane Harvey caused a 28% increase in bankruptcy rates for the residents of Houston living in top tercile flooded areas, many of whom were homeowners with financial constraints and with high homeowner occupancy rates. The authors suggested unequal access to FEMA disaster assistance and SBA disaster loans has impeded recovery of those financially more constrained (Billings et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural disasters, public housing, and the role of disaster aid

Davlasheridze

Miao

2021

Journal of Regional Science

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It has been widely recognized that socially disadvantaged populations are highly vulnerable to natural disasters. Nonetheless, little is known about how disasters affect housing affordability, particularly for those who depend on public housing. Using a national sample of counties over the period 2005-2016, this study examines the effects of flooding and federal disaster aid on the provision of public housing across the United States. We estimate a panel fixed-effects model with an instrumental variable to account for the endogeneity of disaster aid. Results show that severe floods reduce the number of public housing units, prolong the average waiting time, and increase tenant-paid rents for public housing. Meanwhile, we find that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Public Assistance (PA) aid can help restore the supply of public housing and lower the rents paid by tenants in the aftermath of flood events. Our findings suggest that natural disasters place particularly high stress on the socially vulnerable, and post-disaster aid can alleviate some of the adverse impact of disasters on those who depend on public housing.

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Let the Rich Be Flooded: The Unequal Impact of Hurricane Harvey on Household Debt

Cited by 29 publications

References 45 publications

Local Public Finance Dynamics and Hurricane Shocks

Local Public Finance Dynamics and Hurricane Shocks

The Economic Consequences of Being Denied an Abortion

Natural disasters, public housing, and the role of disaster aid

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