Flooding the vote: Heterogeneous voting responses to a natural disaster in Germany

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • K. Peren Arin - , Zayed University (Author)
  • Kevin Devereux - , Chinese University of Hong Kong (Author)
  • Joel Methorst - , Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) (Author)
  • Marcel Thum - , Chair of Economics, esp Public Economics, ifo Dresden, Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research - CESifo GmbH (Author)

Abstract

We present the first evidence of voter-level responses to a climatic disaster — the catastrophic German flooding of 2021, which serves as a natural experiment. Data on previous voting history reveals non-monotonic treatment effects: flood exposure increased the likelihood of voting for the Green Party by four to five percentage points among previous non-Green voters, but decreased future Green voting for previous Green voters. Tracking migration also reveals heterogeneity. Movers-out of flood zones responded more strongly; classifying them in the control group – as geographic panels do – attenuates the treatment effect. Both factors rationalize past findings of null or small effects, emphasizing the importance of microdata.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number102694
JournalEuropean Journal of Political Economy
Volume89
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 105008830715
ORCID /0000-0002-5071-7849/work/210355045

Keywords