The effect of natural disasters on household economic hardship during a pandemic

Abstract

AbstractThe year 2020 provided a rare opportunity to examine how US households experience economic hardship when natural disasters occur during a large‐scale public health crisis, such as the COVID‐19 pandemic. Using a nationally representative sample of adults, this study examines the effect of natural disasters on household economic hardships during a pandemic, measured by food insecurity, mortgage or rent delinquency, and unemployment. The study estimated individual fixed‐effect models after controlling for time trends and time‐variant covariates. We find that while a disaster incident in the community during a pandemic is not associated with household economic hardships in aggregate, its effects are experienced differently by people according to the community‐level severity of COVID‐19 and the individual‐level factors characterized as vulnerability and resilience. Our findings have implications for targeted disaster relief and for building resilience among residents to adverse events.