Abstract

Bangladesh experiences mild to devastating floods during the monsoon season of every year due to its geographical location. Whatever nature these floods may possess, they can be both a curse and a blessing for the people of this country. Self-reporting of Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2016 provides us with an opportunity to analyze the direct impact of the flood on the households’ development outcomes, such as income, expenditure, assets, and labor market outcomes at a microlevel. We also use the government report to identify the households that were treated in the report as being flooded but did not report as so in the HIES 2016. We use these two measures of flood exposure to estimate the full economic impact of monsoon floods and investigate any spillover effect to verify the preciseness of flood identification measure of self-reporting. Our modified control group meticulously strengthen the argument of flood impact and inaccuracy of its self-reporting by revealing households’ inhuman displacement in education and health expenditures. Though some river-centric trade centers offer employment and income increases for households, Bangladesh seems to lose its antique blessing of silt-laden flood water to replenish the fertility of flooded crop fields.

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