Publication:
Natural Disaster, Infrastructure, and Income Distribution: Empirical Evidence from Global Data

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dc.contributor.authorSong, Ze
dc.contributor.authorHochman, Gal
dc.contributor.authorTimilsina, Govinda
dc.date.accessioned2023-07-17T22:36:08Z
dc.date.available2023-07-17T22:36:08Z
dc.date.issued2023-07-17
dc.description.abstractNatural disasters—such as flooding, hurricanes, and earthquakes—have, on average, affected 130 million people and caused more than 40,000 deaths annually worldwide over the past three decades. The average annual value of property damage is estimated at more than 90 billion dollars globally. Corresponding relief and reconstruction packages measuring in billions of dollars over the past three decades have brought large new investments and the formation of new capital assets. The literature has debated the distributional impacts of natural disasters across households by income group. Most studies focus on a specific country or region, and the findings do not converge. Some find that natural disasters reduce income inequality, while others report the opposite. This study adds new empirical evidence on the impacts of natural disasters on income inequality by pooling data from 130 countries for 1990–2017. The study employs the generalized synthetic control method, which involves identifying the causal effects by comparing the actual post-disaster Gini index for treated countries with a counterfactual. The data are from the EM-DAT database maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and covers 70 percent of natural disasters globally. The key finding of the study is that catastrophic natural disasters have negative relationships with inequality, as measured by the Gini index, in both the short and long run. The study also discusses potential mechanisms, such as physical infrastructure, disruptive creation, institutions, political revolution, and financial aid, to further explain findings from the empirical analysis.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099312406272326097/IDU018bdbef90c42104d730a46700d5b8c4c1c83
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-10504
dc.identifier.urihttps://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/40019
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Research Working Papers; 10504
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
dc.subjectINCOME INEQUALITY
dc.subjectNATURAL DISASTERS
dc.subjectINFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
dc.subjectEMPIRICAL STUDIES
dc.subjectCOUNTERFACTUAL ESTIMATION TECHNIQUE
dc.titleNatural Disaster, Infrastructure, and Income Distributionen
dc.title.subtitleEmpirical Evidence from Global Dataen
dc.typeWorking Paper
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleNatural Disaster, Infrastructure, and Income Distribution: Empirical Evidence from Global Data
okr.date.disclosure2023-06-27
okr.date.lastmodified2023-06-27T00:00:00Zen
okr.doctypePolicy Research Working Paper
okr.doctypePublications & Research
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099312406272326097/IDU018bdbef90c42104d730a46700d5b8c4c1c83
okr.guid099312406272326097
okr.identifier.docmidIDU-18bdbef9-c421-4d73-a467-0d5b8c4c1c83
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-10504
okr.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10504
okr.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10504
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum34103035
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum34103035
okr.identifier.reportWPS10504
okr.import.id1137
okr.importedtrueen
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099312406272326097/pdf/IDU018bdbef90c42104d730a46700d5b8c4c1c83.pdfen
okr.topicEnvironment::Environmental Disasters & Degradation
okr.topicEnvironment::Natural Disasters
okr.topicPoverty Reduction::Inequality
okr.topicInfrastructure Economics and Finance::Infrastructure Economics
okr.unitDEC-Sustainability & Infrastruct (DECSI)
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