Using panel data for a large number of countries, we find that economic contractions are not followed by offsetting fast recoveries. Trend output lost is not regained, on average. Wars, crises, and other negative shocks lead to absolute divergence and lower long-run growth, whereas we find...

The impact of currency collapses (i.e., large nominal depreciations or devaluations) on real output remains unsettled in the empirical macroeconomic literature. This paper provides new empirical evidence on this relationship using a dataset for 108 emerging and developing economies for the...

This paper presents a large panel study on the macroeconomic consequences of natural catastrophes and analyses the extent to which risk transfer to insurance markets facilitates economic recovery. Our main results are that major natural catastrophes have large and significant negative effects on...