TY - BOOK ID - 136059574 TI - Assessing the Macroeconomic Impacts of Natural Disasters : Are There Any? PY - 2009 PB - Washington, D.C., The World Bank, DB - UniCat KW - Conflict and Development KW - Currencies and Exchange Rates KW - Debt Markets KW - Disaster KW - Disaster event KW - Disaster events KW - Disaster Management KW - Disaster reduction KW - Disaster risk KW - Disaster risk reduction KW - Drought KW - Droughts KW - Earthquake KW - Earthquakes KW - Economic Theory and Research KW - Emerging Markets KW - Environment KW - Finance and Financial Sector Development KW - Flood KW - Floods KW - Hazard Risk Management KW - Hurricane KW - Macroeconomics and Economic Growth KW - Natural disaster KW - Natural disaster reduction KW - Natural Disasters KW - Natural disasters KW - Natural hazards KW - Private Sector Development KW - Reconstruction KW - Storm KW - Storms KW - Urban Development UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:136059574 AB - There is an ongoing debate on whether disasters cause significant macroeconomic impacts and are truly a potential impediment to economic development. This paper aims to assess whether and by what mechanisms disasters have the potential to cause significant GDP impacts. The analysis first studies the counterfactual versus the observed gross domestic product. Second, the analysis assesses disaster impacts as a function of hazard, exposure of assets, and, importantly, vulnerability. In a medium-term analysis (up to 5 years after the disaster event), comparing counterfactual with observed gross domestic product, the authors find that natural disasters on average can lead to negative consequences. Although the negative effects may be small, they can become more pronounced depending mainly on the size of the shock. Furthermore, the authors test a large number of vulnerability predictors and find that greater aid and inflows of remittances reduce adverse macroeconomic consequences, and that direct losses appear most critical. ER -