When oceans attack: assessing the impact of hurricanes on localized taxable sales

We examine the impact of hurricanes in Florida on county-level taxable sales revenues. Conditional on the strength of the hurricane, within 6 months after a hurricane strikes a county, revenues decline as much as 17 %, whereas revenues in neighboring counties increase by upward of 17 % over that sam...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Annals of regional science 2014-03, Vol.52 (2), p.325-342
Main Authors: Belasen, Ariel R., Dai, Chifeng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coastal areas
Cyclones
Damage
Disasters
Earthquakes
Economic growth
Economic impact
Economics
Economics and Finance
Environmental Economics
Florida
Frames
Geography
Human capital
Hurricanes
Input output
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning
Linear programming
Local economy
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
Neighbourhoods
Oceans
Original Paper
Property damage
Regional/Spatial Science
Revenues
Sales
Sales taxes
Sea
Spillovers
Strikes
Studies
U.S.A
Unemployment
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Summary:We examine the impact of hurricanes in Florida on county-level taxable sales revenues. Conditional on the strength of the hurricane, within 6 months after a hurricane strikes a county, revenues decline as much as 17 %, whereas revenues in neighboring counties increase by upward of 17 % over that same time frame. This decline in revenue is found to be dependent on the commercial makeup of a hurricane-stricken county. Particular focus is given to tourism-related subsectors within the local economy. Finally, we show that along the pathways of hurricanes, initially hit counties face a more severe burden, ranging as high as a 33 % immediate decline in taxable revenues in 1 month for coastal counties. As the hurricane weakens, the direct impact is lessened; however, there is evidence of spillover damage in neighboring areas.
ISSN:0570-1864
1432-0592
DOI:10.1007/s00168-013-0587-8