Abstract
The Dominican Republic is highly exposed to adverse natural events that put the country at risk of losing hard-won economic, social, and environmental gains due to the impacts of disasters. This study used monthly nightlight composites in conjunction with a wind field model to econometrically estimate the impact of tropical cyclones on local economic activity in the Dominican Republic since 1992. It was found that the negative impact of storms lasts up to 15 months after a strike, with the largest effect observed after 9 months. Translating the reduction in nightlight intensity into monetary losses by relating it to quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) suggests that on average the storms reduced GDP by about USD 1.1 billion (4.5% of GDP 2000 and 1.5% of GDP 2016).
Highlights
The Dominican Republic remains among the top economic performers in Latin America and the Caribbean
The coefficients indicate that even a storm like Hurricane Georges would have reduced logged monthly pixel level nightlight intensity in the Dominican Republic by only between 9.1% and 10.5% in the first 3 months relative to its mean value
If we compare this to the average destruction of damaging hurricanes observed over our sample period, 1992 to 2013, the fall in logged brightness would have varied between 0.6% and 0.7%
Summary
The Dominican Republic remains among the top economic performers in Latin America and the Caribbean. The recent availability of satellite-derived nightlight intensity measures at a highly spatially disaggregated level has provided researchers with a potential proxy of local economic wealth and activity (Chen and Nordhaus 2011) These data have found use in the context of tropical storm impacts. A recent study by Ishizawa et al (2017) of six Central American countries using monthly versions of the publicly available annual nightlight images showed that there is considerable heterogeneity of impact even within the year of a hurricane strike and that this is masked in annual data. We used monthly nightlight composites to examine the short-term local impact of hurricanes on the Dominican Republic since 1992 To this end, we constructed local maximum wind speeds for damaging storms for every pixel in the nightlight data using a wind field model and best track data. Ishizawa et al The Impact of Hurricane Strikes on Short-Term Local Economic Activity
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
