Medium-run local economic effects of a major earthquake

Investigadores y postdoctorados:
Paula Aguirre
Rodrigo Valdés

Journal:
Journal of Economic Geography

Línea de investigación:
L3. Riesgo y resiliencia en sistemas complejos y redes
L5. Evaluación socioeconómica para la mitigación del riesgo de infraestructura crítica

Otros autores:
Kenzo Asahi, Diego Diaz-Rioseco e Ignacio Riveros,

Disciplina publicación:
Ciencias Físicas
Economía

Área publicación:
Análisis del riesgo y mitigación

Tema publicación:
Vulnerabilidad física y social

Fecha:
2022

Link publicación:
Link

Abstract:

Existing research is inconclusive regarding the longer-term economic effects of earthquakes. We examine the medium-run impacts of the 2010 earthquake in Chile, the sixth-largest ever recorded, using value-added tax collection as a proxy for economic activity at the municipal level and a measure of local ground-shaking intensity. We find that the affected municipalities suffered a relevant and persistent drop in their economic activity of about 10%, 8–9 years after the event. We discuss the plausibility of the assumption of conditional parallel trends and show that the overall results are robust to using alternative estimation methods.