Natural Disaster and Natural Selection

Hirofumi Uchida, Daisuke Miyakawa, Kaoru Hosono, Arito Ono, Taisuke Uchino and Iichiro Uesugi

No 10, HIT-REFINED Working Paper Series from Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate whether a natural selection works for firm exit after a massive natural disaster. By using a unique data set of more than 84,000 firms after the Great Tohoku Earthquake, we examine the impact of firm efficiency on firm bankruptcy both inside and outside the earthquake-affected areas. We find that more efficient firms are less likely to go bankrupt both inside and outside the affected areas, which indicates the existence of the natural selection. However, we also find that firms located inside the earthquake-affected areas are less likely to go bankrupt than those located outside of the areas. We also apply the same methodology to the case of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and find qualitatively similar results.

Keywords: firm exit; bankruptcy; natural selection; earthquake; natural disaster (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/27739/wp010.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Natural Disaster and Natural Selection (2014)
Working Paper: Natural Disaster and Natural Selection (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hit:remfce:10

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