Valuing adverse health outcomes against storm damages given the presence of private defensive strategies, public programs, and natural barriers: Evidence from Bangladesh coastal areas

Given the possible influence of public programs and mangroves on private defensive strategies, our paper is about specific private actions to reduce: a) the likelihood (probability or risk) that a household will face adverse health impacts from a major storm, and b) the adverse impacts, or severity, of any such health outcomes if they occur. The paper is also about whether exogenous influences, such as post-disaster government rehabilitation and relief programs, or the presence of mangroves and human-made embankments, affect these private defensive strategies of a household. To examine these issues, we classified a household’s private defensive expenditures into two categories: (1) self-protection expenditures, which are actions that reduce the likelihood of storm-inflicted health risks, a form of ex-ante prevention before the storm event; and, (2) mitigating activities and treatments expenditures, which are actions to reduce the severity or magnitude of storm-inflicted injuries or diseases, a form of ex-post adaptation after the storm event.