Productive disasters? Evidence from European firm level data

Andrea Leiter, Harald Oberhofer and Paul Raschky

Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of floods on firms' capital accumulation, employment growth and productivity by using a difference-in-difference approach and considering firms' asset structure. We find evidence that companies in flooding regions show higher growth of total assets and employment than firms in areas which did not face a flooding. This positive effect is even more pronounced for companies with larger shares of intangible assets. Regarding the firms' productivity a significantly negative flood effect is observable which declines with increasing share of intangible assets.

Keywords: Natural Disasters; Firm Growth; Gibrat's Law; Productivity; Difference-in-Differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 D24 Q54 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inn:wpaper:2007-25

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