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There is an unresolved debate as to whether natural disasters present true obstacles to a country's economic growth and development, given that the empirical evidence is rather heterogeneous. In this paper we explore whether aggregate analyses are likely to mask different responses of the components (export and import, government consumption, investment and private consumption) of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To this end, we assembled a panel data set of hurricane strikes and national income accounting data for 21 Caribbean countries for the period 1970-2011. We used a panel Vector Autoregressive (VARX) model to take account of the direct impact of the storm shocks and any feedback mechanisms. Our results suggest that the responses on each GDP component differ widely, where we find some effects on export, import, public consumption, investment and private consumption. However, the differences in timing and directions of these impacts demonstrate why it may be difficult to find any clear and large net aggregate impact of hurricanes and natural disasters in general on GDP.

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This study estimates the economic impact of hurricane strikes in the Caribbean from 1700 to 1960. More precisely, historical accounts of hurricane strikes and actual historical hurricane tracks, in conjunction with sugar export data taken from the colonial blue books and other historical sources, were used to create a cross-colony/country and time dataset that allows for the first time the ability to evaluate the susceptibility of local sugar production to hurricanes. The regression results show that these events had generally large statistically and economically significant impacts.

ACL-1International audienceHistory has shown that hurricanes can cause catastrophic destruction and impede economic growth in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, there is essentially as of date no comprehensive quantitative risk and anticipated loss assessment for the region. In this paper we use synthetic hurricane tracks and local income proxies to estimate expected risk and losses if a climate similar to the last 30 years prevails. We show that on average, the annual fraction of expected property damage and subsequent impacts on income are nonnegligible, with large variations across islands

Innovation has long been associated with productivity growth in that, hypothetically, it results in more effective use of a firm's resources and improved productivity. there is ample empirical evidence that firms that engage in innovation-type activities-such as spending on research and development (r&D) and obtaining intellectual property rights through patents and copyrights-are more technologically advanced and have higher labor productivity, enabling them to compete better internationally (Schumpeter 1939; Griliches 1986; Freeman 1994; Griffith et al. 2006; Mairesse and Mohnen 2010). Furthermore, there is evidence that investment in innovation-type activities results in sustainable long-run growth and development (hall and Jones 1999; OeCD 2009; rouvinen 2002). In view of the potential benefits, policymakers in the Caribbean have acknowledged the role that innovation may play in increasing productivity, as well as economic growth and development. For instance, in 1988,