Flood Risk Mapping and the Distributional Impacts of Climate Information
2026-07-30
This paper examines the provision of official flood risk information in the United States and its distributional impacts on residential flood insurance take-up. Assembling all flood maps produced after Hurricane Katrina, I document that updated maps decreased the number of properties zoned in high-risk floodplains and incorrectly omitted five million properties, primarily in neighborhoods with more Black and Hispanic residents. Leveraging the staggered timing of map updates, I estimate that updated maps decreased flood insurance take-up and exacerbated racial disparities in insurance coverage. While past map updates distorted risk and price signals, correcting flood maps would yield substantial welfare gains. (JEL D83, G22, G52, J15, Q54)