Essays on the economic valuation of flood risk

The frequency and intensity of flooding has increased over the last few decades. The UK is not an exception, despite large amounts of money invested every year in flood risk management, flooding is a prevalent issue in the country causing millions of losses every year. In this thesis we contribute to debate on the economic valuation of flood risk in the UK from a household perspective using a non-market valuation approach from the housing market. In the first chapter we investigate the capitalisation of flood risk in property prices by means of a meta-analysis. In the second and third chapters we use a repeatsales specification of a hedonic model to investigate the capitalisation of flood defences and the effect of flooding in the price of properties in England. The results suggest that the current benefit estimates used by the UK Government to determine the allocation of resources to flood relief projects results in a misallocation of resources. We highlight the importance of rethinking the strategy for flood risk management in the UK. Our results provide a sound economic basis to guide the allocation of resources for flood alleviation strategies in a socially efficient way