Macroeconomic Implications of Natural Disasters in the Caribbean

By Tobias N. Rasmussen. Social Science Research Network, 2004

283 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Each year natural disasters affect about 200 million people and cause about $50 billion in damage. This paper compares the incidence of natural disasters across countries along several dimensions and finds that the relative costs tend to be far higher in developing countries than in advanced economies. The analysis shows that small island states are especially vulnerable, with the countries of the Eastern Caribbean standing out as among the most disaster-prone in the world. Natural disasters are found to have had a discernible macroeconomic impact, including large effects on fiscal and external balances, pointing to an important role for precautionary measures.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e474f220b12de1d069828114f319ba89aec5e18b

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

In Soil Science

Citations in the corpus

DISASTER IMPACT AND INPUT–OUTPUT ANALYSIS (2014, result): “Similar results to Cuaresma et al. are found in Rasmussen (2004) with the data of countries in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, indicating that the long-run effects of disasters on growth are inconclusive.”
Climate change and natural disasters: macroeconomic performance and distributional impacts (2009, background): “Overall, macroeconomic studies have found that natural disasters may lead to an immediate contraction in economic output, a worsening of a country’s balance of trade, a deterioration of the fiscal balances, and an increase in poverty, usually accompanied by an increase in income disparities (Rasmuss”
Debt Sustainability under Catastrophic Risk: The Case for Government Budget Insurance (2007, unknown): “According to Rasmussen (2004),6 despite being one of the more disaster-prone areas of the world, the Caribbean region has the lowest levels of insurance coverage, with less than 4 percent of disaster damage covered by insurance, compared with more than 30 percent in North America, the region with…”
How do governments respond after catastrophes ? natural-disaster shocks and the fiscal stance (2011, unknown): “In addition to their direct costs, usually measured in terms of damages, casualties, and output losses (Raddatz, 2009; Rasmussen, 2004), natural disasters have the potential to constitute a major issue for public finances and debt sustainability in particular (Borensztein et al., 2008; Rasmussen, 20”
Quantifying uncertainty and variable sensitivity within the US billion-dollar weather and climate disaster cost estimates (2015, background): “…due to natural disaster impacts (World Bank 2005, Hallegatte and Dumas 2009, IPCC 2014), and exploring how developed countries have more capacity to rebound from natural disasters impacts due to their wealth and financial systems (Rasmussen 2004, Toya and Skidmore 2007, Cavallo and Noy 2009).”
The economic growth impact of natural disasters in developing countries: Evidence from hurricane strikes in the Central American and Caribbean regions (2012, background): “…events seem tomainly take place in developing countries and these tend to be relatively specialized in agriculture, which is likely to be the sector most affected by natural disasters.5 As a matter of fact, recent evidence seems to indicate that the extent of losses due to 1 Rasmussen (2004).”
The Growth Aftermath of Natural Disasters (2009, unknown): “Rasmussen (2004) assessed the impacts of natural disaster incidences using a cross-country sample for the period 1970 through 2002.”
Unmitigated Disasters? New Evidence on the Macroeconomic Cost of Natural Catastrophes (2012, unknown): “Some find a qualified positive effect (e.g. Skidmore and Toya 2002), others a negative effect (e.g. Rasmussen 2004, Fomby et al. 2009, Noy 2009) and some find no significant effect (e.g. Cavallo et al. 2010).”
The impact of extreme weather events on budget balances (2009, unknown): “Raddatz (2007), Noy (2009) and Rasmussen (2004) find that natural disasters can have short-run adverse effects on the economy.”
Natural disasters' impact, factors of resilience and development: A meta-analysis of the macroeconomic literature (2014, background): “" 6 For example, Noy (2009) refers to Rasmussen (2004) and Kahn (2005) to support the inclusion of political economy and income level variables.”
Assessing the Macroeconomic Impacts of Natural Disasters: Are There Any? (2009, result): “Another study, Rasmussen (2004), is in accordance with above studies and for a cross-country sample identified a median reduction of the growth rate by 2.2% points in the year of the event.”
Financial Protection of the State Against Natural Disasters: A Primer (2010, unknown): “ Assessing a government’s financial exposure is different from a macro‐economic analysis of the impact of disasters (see, for example, Rasmussen 2004).”
Natural Disasters and Human Capital Accumulation (2009, unknown): “ Albala‐ Bertrand (1993a, 1993b), Tol and Leek (1999), Rasmussen (2004) or Noy (2009) are some modern examples of research aimed at measuring the short and medium‐run impacts of disasters.”
The economics of natural disasters in a developing country: The case of Vietnam (2010, methodology): “Skidmore and Toya (2002) and Noy and Nualsri (2007) examine the long‐run impact of natural disasters on growth.”