A number of authors have used the concept of an optimum currency area (or OCA) index to assess the relative proximity of various pairs of economies to the ideal of an optimum currency area. Alas, a significant deficiency of this approach as used so far is that it provides no room for long-term...

We estimate the causal effect of natural catastrophes on financial development. We focus on largest catastrophes in developing economies in 1960-2016, employ synthetic control method to compute the counterfactual and use the credit to GDP ratio as the measure of financial development. Our...