2021 Volume 77 Issue 4 Pages 301-315
Some firms have moved out from the Pacific coastal area where severe tsunami damage is expected. The construction of seawalls reduces the risk of inundation and affects their relocation. In order to capture the benefit of the seawalls, it is necessary to grasp the change in the number of firms associated with the construction of the seawalls. The risk of tsunami inundation varies spatially de-pending on the distance from the coast and the topographic conditions. In addition, there are regional location factors by industry. Therefore, we use the Difference-in-Differences method to capture the influence of the publication of inundation risk information on the location of firms. Specifically, we analyzed the change in the number of firms by industry using location data before and after the publication of the inundation risks. As a result, we found that industries with local demand, such as education, do not change their locations even after they know that their locations are in inundation areas, while industries with wide demand areas, such as manufacturing and wholesale, move out from the inundation areas.
