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Natural natural disasters and economic disruption

Author

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  • Yanos Zylberberg

    (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

The cost of natural calamities is not limited to direct capital losses. Economies in the wake of severe shocks experience important slowdowns. I construct an exhaustive dataset of objective measures on cyclones and earthquakes worldwide between 1980 and 2006 and complement existing reports on direct damages. I then estimate the amplitude of indirect economic losses in the aftermath of catastrophes. Declared damages accounting for 1% of GDP are associated with a slowdown of .05 to .06 points of GDP growth. The economic slack piles up to .4 points of GDP when I instrument by actual exposure to alleviate censorship issues and declaration biases. This output loss is superior to what would suggest a model of labor frictions and capital losses and points to large business disruptions. Finally, the objective measures happen to be better at predicting the economic slack than estimations from officials.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanos Zylberberg, 2010. "Natural natural disasters and economic disruption," Working Papers halshs-00564946, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00564946
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00564946v2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Rayenda Brahmana & Chin hong Puah & Michael Chai, 2016. "Natural Disaster and Local Bank Non-Performing Loan: Case of Nias Tsunami 2004," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(4), pages 2413-2421.

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