We estimate the causal effect of the Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka on household income and consumption eight years after the event, using a quasi-experimental method. A strong association between area-wide tsunami disaster shock and increases in household income and consumption in the...

The long-term economic consequences of catastrophic disasters are poorly understood. This lacuna is surprising since the long-term effects may be much more important than the short-term emergency phase. In contrast, the policy literature is full of aspirational plans to "build back better" (BBB)...

In 2011, Thailand experienced its worst flood ever. Using repeated waves of the Thai Household Survey, we analyse the flood's economic impacts. In 2012, households answered a set of questions on the extent of flooding they experienced. We use this self-identified flood exposure, and external...

We measure the longer-term effect of a major earthquake on the local economy, using night-time light intensity measured from space, and investigate whether insurance claim payments for damaged residential property affected the local recovery process. We focus on the destructive Canterbury...

We compare the realised impact of terrorism and disasters linked to natural hazards. Using fifty years of data from two databases covering 99 percent of the global population, we find that natural hazard disasters were more then 20 times more impactful than terrorism. The former had a larger...