The impact of a disaster recovery policy on health status of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake victims: Evidence from a natural experiment

Abstract

The 2015 Gorkha earthquake destroyed key infrastructure in Greater Kathmandu and the surrounding earthquake‐affected areas, undermining the health status of affected households. As one of the disaster recovery policies, the Nepalese government distributed taxi permits to severely affected households through a lottery. Leveraging on this natural experimental setting, we examine the impact of the policy on their health status and access to health services. The results show that the treated households have fewer chronic and diarrhoeal diseases, and fewer doctor visits. However, we find no significant difference in the households' medical expenditure between the two groups. We also find that rural households with the taxi permits benefit more from the policy. The results of this study may provide policymakers with some insight to enhance their post‐disaster recovery strategy.