Open AccessQuantifying the Local Economic Growth Impact of Hurricane Strikes: An Analysis from Outer Space for the Caribbean
Author(s) -
Luisito Bertinelli,
Eric Strobl
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied meteorology and climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.079
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1558-8432
pISSN - 1558-8424
DOI - 10.1175/jamc-d-12-0258.1
Subject(s) - proxy (statistics) , environmental science , climatology , economic impact analysis , storm , meteorology , satellite , geography , geology , economics , statistics , mathematics , aerospace engineering , engineering , microeconomics
Studies of the impact of hurricanes on economic activity typically are restricted to a very aggregate level of analysis because of the lack of spatially disaggregated data. In this paper nightlight satellite imagery is employed as a measure of local economic activity in conjunction with a local proxy for potential hurricane destruction generated from a wind field model to statistically assess the impact of hurricane strikes on local economic growth. The regression results suggest that on average hurricane strikes reduce income growth by around 1.5% at the local level, with no effect beyond the year of the strike. This estimated impact from localized data is more than 2 times that implied by aggregate analyses.