Natural disasters impact, factors of resilience and development: A meta-analysis of the macroeconomic literature

We systematize recent macroeconomic empirical literature on the direct and indirect impact of natural disasters providing a meta-analysis of 20 studies published during 2002-2013. We show that the disagreement between these studies is caused by the empirical design, the estimation technique and the resilience factors included in the analyses. The meta-regression suggests that studies that analyse indirect costs have a 88% higher probability to find a positive significant disaster impact than studies of direct costs. If the impact of the disaster is modelled through a disaster indicator, the likelihood of finding a negative and significant disaster impact increases by 64%.