Alexandra Avdeenko

Monday, April 3, 2023 — 12:00-01:00pm

Room 116, MSE

Does early adaptation to climate change pay?: Evidence from an RCT and extreme flooding in Pakistan

Alexandra Avdeenko

(Heidelberg University)

With rising global temperatures and more frequent weather extremes, climate change adaptation is a necessary policy response to increase resilience. We study the impact of climate adaptation interventions that aim at increasing welfare as well as preparedness and resilience to future natural disasters using a clustered randomized control trial in disaster-prone areas of Pakistan. Relying on evidence from a three-year household panel, we first show that the preparedness strategies were adopted by the villagers, i.a., shelters were strengthened, hygiene practices and the subjective feeling of preparedness improved. In the course of our investigation, part our study areas were affected by extreme monsoon flooding. We measure substantial improvement for food security and health outcomes for households that had previously been assigned to the climate adaptation measures. A detailed cost-benefit analysis displays that early investments can be largely self-sustaining. We present estimates on the damage of climate change by explicitly considering adaptation costs.