The Long-Term Impact of Disaster Loans: The Case of Small Businesses after Hurricane Katrina

Tomoko Hiramatsu and Maria Marshall
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Tomoko Hiramatsu: Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: The US government provided $2.6 billion of small business administration (SBA) disaster loans to individuals and businesses in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. However, existing literature has not fully explored the firm-level effects of post-disaster loan aid, specifically, the effect on small businesses. The objective of this article is to examine whether SBA disaster loans played a significant role in the performance of small businesses after Hurricane Katrina. Data from a sample of 287 small businesses in Mississippi that were operating before Hurricane Katrina and still operating in 2013 were used in the analysis. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) small business owners that received SBA disaster loans have higher revenue change compared to before Katrina than those who did not receive the loan; (2) small business owners that received SBA disaster loans perceived their businesses to have higher revenue than before Katrina. Receiving a SBA disaster loan played a positive and statistically significant role in determining the actual revenue change and owners’ perception of revenue.

Keywords: disaster; small business; revenue; loans; recovery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:7:p:2364-:d:156753

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