Floods, Agricultural Production, and Household Welfare: Evidence from Tanzania

Floods affect more than 21 million people yearly, principally in poor countries. Using 3-year panel microdata from Tanzania and satellite flood data, this paper investigates the impacts of two successive large floods on households' value of crop production, income, expenditures and life satisfaction. Using a kernel weighting difference-in-differences approach, we find a 34% decrease in the value of crop production for households living in affected villages or clusters in the year following the shock. We find no effects on total expenditures or child nutrition, but a significant negative effect on self-employment income and a persistent decrease in life satisfaction. Finally, access to safety nets or transfer income, and to forests in a village appears to have important mitigating effects.