Central America is particularly prone to tropical storms and hurricanes. The prevailing conditions of poverty and socioeconomic inequality in most countries of the region make their exposed population especially vulnerable to those adverse natural events. This paper quantifies the causal effects...

Central America is particularly prone to tropical storms and hurricanes. The prevailing conditions of poverty and socioeconomic inequality in most countries of the region make their exposed population especially vulnerable to those adverse natural events. This paper quantifies the causal effects...

Bolivia’s primary natural hazards - such as droughts, frost, severe rains, and hailstorms - are largely hydrometeorological in nature, and include phenomena derived from these, such as floods and landslides. Given their frequency and the proportion of the population exposed to them, floods...

The Dominican Republic is highly exposed to adverse natural events putting the country at risk of losing hard-won economic, social, and environmental gains due to the impacts of disasters. This study uses monthly nightlight composites in conjunction with a wind field model to econometrically...

This paper evaluates whether mangroves can mitigate the impact of hurricanes on economic activity. The paper assembles a new, regionwide panel data set that measures local economic activity using nightlights, potential hurricane damages using a detailed hurricane windstorm model, and mangrove...

A view receiving increased support is that the height of trade costs in prime export sectorshas a strong effect on current account balances: countries specializing in sectors that facerelatively high trade costs, such as services, tend to run current account deficits, andsimilarly, countries...