The Impact of the accident on Sayano-Shushenskaya dam: an application of synthetic control method

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate an economic impact of the technological accident happened in 2009 on Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station on Khakassia, the region where this dam is located. In order to conduct it, the synthetic control method, first introduced by Abadie and Gadeazabal (2003), was applied. The disaster on Sayano Shushenskaya dam is the most significant disaster that happened recently on hydroelectric station in Russia and caused deaths of the workers, economic and energetic losses, and ecological consequences. However, in this research, it was discovered that this catastrophe had a positive non-significant influence on Gross Regional Product (GRP) per capita of Khakassia. Such economic effect could be explained by a specific of this technological disaster, an inflow of investments and a good coordination of emergency operations.