Disasters

(selected papers; a full list is available in my CV)


Surveys

Extreme Events Impact Attribution: A State of the Art. w/ Dáithí Stone and Tomáš Uher. Cell Reports Sustainability (2024).

Climate Changes Affect Human Capital. w/ Germán Caruso and Inés de Marcos. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (2024).

The Short-Termism of 'Hard' Economics. w/ Shakked Noy. Book chapter (2025).

Business Recovery from Disasters: Lessons from Natural Hazards and the Pandemic. w/ Stephanie Chang et al. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. (2022).

Four New Horsemen of an Apocalypse? Solar Flares, Super-volcanoes, High-Mortality Pandemics, and Misaligned Artificial Intelligence. w/ Tomáš Uher. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (2022).

Catastrophic Droughts and their Economic Consequences. w/ Farnaz Pourzand. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science (2022).

Defining Build-Back-Better after Disasters. w/ Diana De Alwis, Benno Ferrarini, and Donghyun Park. International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics (2020).

The Long-Term Consequences of Disasters: What do we Know, and What we still Don't. w/ Will duPont. International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics (2018).

Poverty, Inequality and Natural Disasters – A Survey. w/ Azreen Karim. Singapore Economic Review (2016).

The Economics of Natural Disasters – A Survey. w/ Eduardo Cavallo. International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics (2011).

Impacts (direct damages) 

Damages and costs of forest wildfires in New Zealand using satellite data. w/ Elodie Blanc. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (2024).

A Comprehensive Comparison of the Impact of Terrorism and Disasters Linked to Natural Hazards. w/ Timothy Wilson. Global Policy (2023).

Nowcasting From Space: Tropical Cyclones’ Impacts on Fiji’s Agriculture. w/ Elodie Blanc, Madhavi Pundit, and Tomáš Uher. Natural Hazards (2023).

A Non-Monetary Global Measure of the Direct Impact of Natural Disasters. Global Policy (2016).

Natural Disasters in the Pacific Island Countries: New Measurements of Impacts. Natural Hazards (2016).

Comparing the Direct Human Impact of Natural Disasters for Two (Surprisingly Similar) Cases - the Christchurch Earthquake and Bangkok Flood. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (2015).

Impacts (indirect losses - macro) 

Extreme Weather and Inter-State Migration in India. w/ Richa and Subir Sen. Migration and Development (2025).

The Fiscal Costs of Earthquakes in Japan. w/ Toshihiro Okubo, Eric Strobl, and Thomas Tveit. International Tax and Public Finance (2023).

How Do Shocks Affect International Reserves? A Quasi-Experiment of Earthquakes. w/ Yothin Jinjarak and Quy Ta. Open Economies Review (2022).

Increasing Fiscal Resilience to Disasters in the Pacific. w/ Christopher Edmonds. Natural Hazards (2019). 

Natural disasters and firms in Vietnam. w/ Tam Vu. Pacific Economic Review (2018).

The 1960 Tsunami in Hawaii: Long Term Consequences of a Coastal Disaster. w/ John Lynham and Jonathan Page. World Development (2017).

The Long-Run Socio-Economic Consequences of a Large Disaster: The 1995 Earthquake in Kobe. w/ William duPont, Yoko Okuyama, Yasuyuki Sawada. PLOS One (2015).

Regional Effects of Natural Disasters in China: Investing in Recovery. w/ Tam Vu. Natural Hazards (2015).

The Short-run Nationwide Macroeconomic Effects of the Canterbury Earthquakes. w/ Lisa Doyle. New Zealand Economic Papers (2015).

What Happened to Kobe? A Reassessment of the Impact of the 1995 Earthquake. w/ William duPont. Economic Development and Cultural Change (2015).

Catastrophic Natural Disasters and Economic Growth. w/ Juan Pantano, Eduardo Cavallo and Sebastian Galiani. Review of Economics and Statistics (2013).

Hurricane Iniki: Measuring the Long-Term Economic Impact of a Natural Disaster Using Synthetic Control. w/ Makena Coffman. Environment and Development Economics (2012).

Fiscal Storms: Public Spending and Revenues in the Aftermath of Natural Disasters. w/ Aekkanush Nualsri. Environment and Development Economics (2011).

The Economics of Natural Disasters in a Developing Country: The Case of Vietnam. w/ Tam Vu. Journal of Asian Economics (2010).

The Macroeconomic Consequences of Natural Disasters. Journal of Development Economics (2009).

Impacts (indirect losses - micro) 

How Do Floods Affect Firms’ Economic Performance?: Evidence from Two Cyclones in New Zealand. w/ Cristhian Prieto (2024).

The Effect of Cyclones on Workers’ Mental Health. w/ Cristhian Prieto and Arthur Grimes (2025).

Impact of Canterbury earthquakes on Wellbeing in New Zealand. w/ Thi Mui Nguyen and Yigit Saglam. Disasters (2025).

The impact of 2010–11 Christchurch earthquakes on the individuals’ income by sector and income level. w/ Yousef Abdeljawad. Annals of Regional Science (2025).

The Impact of the Christchurch Earthquakes (2010- 2011) on Labour Productivity in the Canterbury Region in New Zealand. w/ Yousef Abdeljawad. Environmental Hazards (2025). 

Impacts of Droughts and Floods on Agricultural Productivity in New Zealand as Measured from Space. w/ Elodie Blanc. Environmental Research: Climate (2023).

Income and Extra-tropical Cyclones in New Zealand. w/ Apurba Roy and Harold Cuffe. Journal of Environmental Management (2022).

Floods and Spillovers: Households after the 2011 Great Flood in Thailand. w/ Cuong Nguyen and Pooja Patel. Economic Development and Cultural Change (2021). Web appendix.

Droughts and Farms’ Financial Performance in New Zealand: a Micro Farm-Level Study. w/ Farnaz Pourzand and Yiğit Sağlam. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (2020).

The Cost of Being Under the Weather: Droughts, Floods, and Health Care Costs in Sri Lanka. w/ Diana De Alwis. Asian Development Review (2019).

Sri Lankan Households a Decade after the Indian Ocean Tsunami. w/ Diana De Alwis. Review of Development Economics (2019).

At the Very Edge of a Storm: The Impact of a Distant Cyclone on Atoll Islands. w/ Tauisi Taupo. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (2017).

Insurance

Modeling spatial correlation between earthquake insured losses in New Zealand: A mixed-effects analysis. w/ Marta L Di Lascio and Selene Perazzini. Risk Analysis (2025).

Is Investment in Prevention Correlated with Insurance Fraud? Theory and Experiment. w/ Eberhard Feess and Loan Nguyen. Review of Law & Economics (2025).

Insurance Retreat in Residential Properties from Future Sea Level Rise in Aotearoa New Zealand. w/ Belinda Storey, Sally Owen, and Christian Zammit. Climatic Change (2024).

Insurance for Catastrophes: Indemnity vs. Parametric Insurance with Imperfect Information. w/ Eberhard Feess and Cathrin Jordan (2022).

Settling insurance claims with cash or repair and housing market recovery after an earthquake. w/ Cuong Nguyen, Dag Einar Sommervoll, and Fang Yao. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (2023).

Measuring the impact of insurance on New Zealand landslip, storm and flood recovery using nightlights. w/ Sally Owen, Jacob Pástor Paz, and David Fleming. Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance (2021).

Measuring the Impact of Insurance on Urban Recovery with Light: The 2011 New Zealand Earthquake. w/ Cuong Nguyen. Journal of Economic Geography (2020).

Insuring Earthquakes: How Would the Californian and Japanese Insurance Programs Have Fared After the 2011 New Zealand Earthquake? w/ Cuong Nguyen. Disasters (2020). 

The Unfortunate Regressivity of Public Disaster Insurance: A Quantitative Analysis of a New Zealand Case. w/ Sally Owen. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (2019).

A Viable and Cost-Effective Weather Index Insurance for Rice in Indonesia. w/ Aditya Kusuma and Bethanna Jackson. Geneva Risk and Insurance Review (2018).

Insurance as a Double-Edged Sword? Quantitative Evidence from the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake. w/ Polly Poontirakul, Charlotte Brown, Erica Seville, and John Vargo. Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance (2017).

measurement & policy

Creatively Destructive Hurricanes: Do Disasters Spark Innovation? w/ Eric Strobl. Environmental and Resource Economics (2023). 

Heat Waves and Innovation in Air Conditioning in the United States. w/ Eric Strobl. Weather, Climate, and Society (2022). 

Prioritising Earthquake Retrofitting in Wellington, New Zealand. w/ Thoa Hoang, Olga Filippova, and Ken Elwood. Disasters (2021).

Risk, Poverty, or Politics? The determinants of subnational public spending allocation for adaptive disaster risk reduction in Bangladesh. w/ Azreen Karim. World Development (2020). 

Measurement of Economic Welfare Risk and Resilience of the Philippine Regions. w/ Rio Yonson. Risk Analysis (2020).

Earthquake Strengthening Policy for Commercial Buildings in Small-Town New Zealand. w/ Olga Filippova. Disasters (2019).

The Measurement of Disaster Risk: An Example from Tropical Cyclones In the Philippines. w/ Rio Yonson and JC Gaillard. Review of Development Economics (2018).

Where is the Money? Post-Disaster Foreign Aid Flows. w/ Oscar Becerra and Eduardo Cavallo. Environment and Development Economics (2015).

In the Aftermath of Large Natural Disasters, What Happens to Foreign Aid? w/ Oscar Becerra and Eduardo Cavallo. Review of Development Economics (2014).

Remote sensing

Impact of Tropical Cyclones on Fishing Activity in the Philippines. w/ Miloud Lacheheb and Madhavi Pundit. Fisheries Research (2025).

Damages and costs of forest wildfires in New Zealand using satellite data. w/ Elodie Blanc. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (2024).

Impacts of Droughts and Floods on Agricultural Productivity in New Zealand as Measured from Space. w/ Elodie Blanc. Environmental Research: Climate (2023).

Nowcasting From Space: Tropical Cyclones’ Impacts on Fiji’s Agriculture. w/ Elodie Blanc, Madhavi Pundit, and Tomáš Uher. Natural Hazards (2023).

Measuring the impact of insurance on New Zealand landslip, storm and flood recovery using nightlights. w/ Sally Owen, Jacob Pástor Paz, and David Fleming. Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance (2021).

Measuring the Impact of Insurance on Urban Recovery with Light: The 2011 New Zealand Earthquake. w/ Cuong Nguyen. Journal of Economic Geography (2020).


Photo: The Jantar Mantar in Delhi, India