Do hurricanes have a cleansing effect? To answer this question, we test whether hurricanes lead to a reorganization of exports towards goods with higher comparative advantage. Using manufacturing exports disaggregated at the HS6 level over the period 1995-2005, we find that lower comparative...

There is little consensus in the economic literature on the effects of hurricanes on economic growth. This paper argues that this mixed evidence may result from ignoring the potential for hurricanes to generate heterogeneous impacts within countries. To test this hypothesis, we take advantage of...