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Business Losses, Transportation Damage and the Northridge Earthquake

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  • Boarnet, Marlon G.

Abstract

The January 17, 1994 Northridge Earthquake damaged four major freeways in the Los Angeles area, creating the prospect of gridlock in the nation's prototypical automobile city. This paper examines the effect of the transportation damage on business activity. Using survey responses from 559 firms in the Los Angeles area, this paper gives information on the extent and magnitude of the business losses that can be attributed to the transportation disruptions. Despite the fact that the freeway damage was repaired exceptionally quickly, 43% of the firms that reported any earthquake loss stated that some portion of that loss was due to transportation damage. For the firms that attributed some loss to transportation damage, the average response was that 39% of their earthquake-related business losses were due to the disruptions in the transportation system. Comparing information on these and other survey responses yields several policy recommendations, which are summarized at the end of the paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Boarnet, Marlon G., 1996. "Business Losses, Transportation Damage and the Northridge Earthquake," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt80w9g0rd, University of California Transportation Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:uctcwp:qt80w9g0rd
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    1. Kroll, Cynthia A. & Landis, John D. & Shen, Qing & Stryker, Sean, 1991. "Economic Impacts of the Loma Prieta Earthquake: A Focus on Small Businesses," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt05f3382m, University of California Transportation Center.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Dharma Kwon, H. & Lippman, Steven A. & Tang, Christopher S., 2010. "Optimal time-based and cost-based coordinated project contracts with unobservable work rates," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 247-254, August.
    3. Nina Graveline & Marine Gremont, 2017. "Measuring and understanding the microeconomic resilience of businesses to lifeline service interruptions due to natural disasters," Post-Print hal-01631780, HAL.
    4. Tetsuji Okazaki & Toshihiro Okubo & Eric Strobl, 2020. "The Bright and Dark Side of Financial Support from Local and Central Banks after a Natural Disaster: Evidence from the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923 Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2020-001, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    5. Matthew A. Cole & Robert J R Elliott & Toshihiro Okubo & Eric Strobl, 2014. "Natural Disasters and the Birth, Life and Death of Plants: The Case of the Kobe Earthquake," Working Papers 2014-114, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    6. Robert Noland & John Polak & Michael Bell & Neil Thorpe, 2003. "How much disruption to activities could fuel shortages cause? – The British fuel crisis of September 2000," Transportation, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 459-481, November.

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