The Impact of Disasters on Inflation

53 Pages Posted: 3 Feb 2017

Date Written: November 21, 2016

Abstract

This paper studies how disasters affect consumer price inflation, one of the main remaining gaps in our understanding of the impact of disasters. There is a marked heterogeneity in the impact between advanced economies, where the impact is negligible, and developing economies, where the impact can last for several years. There are also differences in the impact by type of disasters, particularly when considering inflation sub-indices. Storms increase food price inflation in the near term, although the effect dissipates within a year. Floods also typically have a short-run impact on inflation. Earthquakes reduce CPI inflation excluding food, housing and energy.

Keywords: inflation, disasters

JEL Classification: E31, Q54

Suggested Citation

Parker, Miles Ian, The Impact of Disasters on Inflation (November 21, 2016). ECB Working Paper No. 1982, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2910948 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2910948

Miles Ian Parker (Contact Author)

Reserve Bank of New Zealand ( email )

2 The Terrace
P.O. Box 2498
Wellington
New Zealand

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