Losses from Natural Disasters: New County-Level Data and Resilient Consumer Spending

Matteo Crosignani, Martin Hiti and Sneha Parthasarathy

No 1156, Staff Reports from Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract: We introduce Losses from Natural Disasters, the first comprehensive public dataset on county-level damages, injuries, and fatalities from U.S. natural disasters, and document new facts about consumer spending and household financial strain around extreme weather. We map NOAA meteorological zones to counties using geographic tools and data on population, housing, and economic activity. Using transaction and consumer credit data, we find that spending falls sharply when hurricanes and coastal disasters begin but recovers within a week, while the share of borrowers with high credit card utilization remains elevated for several quarters. Despite large damages, wildfires show no comparable spending response.

Keywords: natural disasters; consumer spending; credit card debt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 G51 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47
Date: 2025-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-rmg and nep-ure
Note: Revised October 2026. Previous title: “Losses from Natural Disasters: County-Level Data on Damages, Injuries, and Fatalities.”
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DOI: 10.59576/sr.1156

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