Are Natural Disasters Good for Economic Growth?

Pelle Ahlerup ()
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Pelle Ahlerup: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O.Box 640, SE 40530 GOTHENBURG, Sweden

No 553, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: Natural disasters plague the populations of many countries, and the international community often seeks to alleviate the human suffering by means of humanitarian aid. Do natural disasters also have negative effects on aggregate economic growth? This paper shows that natural disasters on average have a positive association with subsequent economic performance. This overall positive association is driven by the experience of democratic developing countries that receive humanitarian aid.

Keywords: natural disasters; economic growth; humanitarian aid. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H84 O11 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2013-02-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-env, nep-fdg and nep-res
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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