This paper examines Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the aftermath of large natural disasters between 1970 and 2008. Using an event-study approach, the paper finds that while the median increase in ODA is 18 percent compared to pre-disaster flows, the typical surge is small in relation...

This paper examines the short and long-run average causal impact of catastrophic natural disasters on economic growth by combining information from comparative case studies. The counterfactual of the cases studied is assessed by constructing synthetic control groups, taking advantage of the fact...

Natural disasters are by no means new, yet the evolving understanding of their relevance to economic development and growth is still in its infancy. This paper summarizes the state of the economic literature examining the aggregate impact of disasters. The paper reviews the main disaster data...