Measuring long-run economic effects of natural hazard

This paper studies the long-run economic effects of severe weather on regional economies. A catastrophic event, such as a hurricane, will have an effect on both the directly impacted region and adjacent regions. With dramatically increasing damage from catastrophic weather events over the past few decades, comprehensive assessment of the long-run economic impact of natural disasters across the broader region becomes more important than ever for planning for post-disaster recovery. We estimate the long-run effect of Hurricane Katrina on the unemployment rate of Houston, TX by employing time-series and fixed-effect models. Using Dallas as a control, we find that Katrina is associated with a higher long-run unemployment rate in Houston than would otherwise have been expected. This implies that the hurricane-generated adverse relative effects on Houston. Our findings suggest that areas that are geographically proximate to the directly impacted region can sustain lasting negative economic consequences.