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The 1960 Tsunami in Hawaii: Long-Term Consequences of a Coastal Disaster

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  • Lynham, John
  • Noy, Ilan
  • Page, Jonathan

Abstract

On May 23, 1960, a devastating tsunami struck the city of Hilo on the island of Hawaii. This tsunami provides a unique natural experiment as the tsunami was unexpected, and the other Hawaiian Islands, which were not hit by the tsunami, provide an ideal control group that enables us to precisely identify what happened to the economy of Hilo. We use a synthetic control methodology (Abadie, Diamond, & Hainmueller, 2010), and find that fifteen years after the event, unemployment was still 32% higher and population was still 9% lower than it would have been had the tsunami not occurred.

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  • Lynham, John & Noy, Ilan & Page, Jonathan, 2017. "The 1960 Tsunami in Hawaii: Long-Term Consequences of a Coastal Disaster," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 106-118.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:94:y:2017:i:c:p:106-118
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.12.043
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Oceania; Hawaii; coastal disasters; disaster impact; tsunami; synthetic control;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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