Modeling the Regional Impacts of Disasters on Economic Growth

Abstract

This paper utilizes structural equation modelling to analyse the regional impacts of disaster on economic growth. The analysis is conducted at the global level, and repeated for the nations that constitute Europe, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Caribbean and Central America. The findings support a relationship between disasters and variations in economic growth. The output of the analysis suggests that disasters account for eleven percent of the variations in GDP globally. When assessed individually, Europe and the Caribbean and Central America have adjusted R2 of 0.243 and 0.244, while Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa had impacts of 0.09 and 0.10, respectively.