Natural disasters and regional industrial production efficiency

Evidence from pre-war Japan

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10408937
AutoresPreeya Mohan (0000-0003-3333-7198, SALISES, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Jamaica), Toshihiro Okubo (0000-0003-2795-1706, Keio University, autor correspondente), Eric Strobl (0000-0002-1583-6412, University of Bern)
Ano2022
Volume57
Fascículo10
Páginas2054-2072
Data de publicação2022-11-24
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoRegional Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0034-3404 • E-ISSN: 1360-0591
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00343404.2022.2137485
OpenAlexW4309913863
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas45

In this paper we investigate whether destruction due to natural disasters induces industries to increase their regional production efficiency using the case of pre-war Japan, a setting of frequent disasters and technological upgrading. To this end we compile a regional sectoral dataset of natural disaster destruction and production for machinery and textiles. We then employ a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) approach to estimate the role of disaster events on changes in production efficiency. Our results show that earthquakes led to increases in efficiency for both machinery and textiles, although they were substantially greater for textiles due to the recovery persisting longer. Overall earthquakes contributed 6.8% of efficiency gains in textiles and 3.1% in machinery. However, allowing events to compound in their impact showed that such gains were dampened when there were damaging earthquakes in subsequent years. In contrast, for climate-related natural disaster events there is only weak, if any, evidence that these played a significant role in determining productive efficiency

Economic geography · Economics · Frontier · Geography · Industrial production · Macroeconomics · Natural (archaeology · Natural disaster · Natural resource economics · Production (economics · Production efficiency · Stochastic frontier analysis · Agricultural risk and resilience · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Regional resilience and development