A Critical Review on the Economics of Disasters

Abstract

The idea of economics of disasters can be traced back to the mid-19th century. The field of economics of disaster continues to be expand after 1970s and mainly concentrating in the disaster loss assessment methods, disaster economic impact model, the value of life assessments and disaster insurance and disaster risk securitization. This paper presents the research framework of economics of disasters, including disaster damage assessment, mitigation theory, disaster short-term economic impact, relationship between disasters and long-term economic growth, the value of life assessment, disaster risk management and disaster recovery and reconstruction theory.