Natural Disasters, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development in China?An Empirical Study Using Provincial Panel Data

Ji Guo, Hui Liu, Xianhua Wu, Jiong Gu, Shunfeng Song and Yinshan Tang
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Ji Guo: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 10044, China
Hui Liu: School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Xianhua Wu: Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 10044, China
Jiong Gu: School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Yinshan Tang: Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6UD, UK

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Using a newly developed integrated indicator system with entropy weighting, we analyzed the panel data of 577 recorded disasters in 30 provinces of China from 1985–2011 to identify their links with the subsequent economic growth. Meteorological disasters promote economic growth through human capital instead of physical capital. Geological disasters did not trigger local economic growth from 1999–2011. Generally, natural disasters overall had no significant impact on economic growth from 1985–1998. Thus, human capital reinvestment should be the aim in managing recoveries, and it should be used to regenerate the local economy based on long-term sustainable development.

Keywords: Economic growth; geological disasters; meteorological disasters; human capital; physical capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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