In this paper we examine the impact of major disasters on international trade flows using a gravity model. Our panel data consists of more than 170 countries for the years 1962-2004 yielding approximately 300,000 observations. We find that the driving forces determining the impact of such events...

In this paper we examine the impact of major disasters on international trade flows using a gravity model. Our panel data consists of more than 170 countries for the years 1962-2004 yielding approximately 300,000 observations. We find that the driving forces determining the impact of such events...

This paper examines the impact of major disasters on trade flows using a gravity model (170 countries, 1962-2004). As a conservative estimate, an additional disaster reduces imports on average by 0.2% and exports by 0.1%. Despite this apparent persistence of bilateral trade volumes, the impact...