Biography

Preeya Mohan is currently a PhD candidate in Economic Development and Policy at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine. She was awarded the Eric Williams Memorial Scholarship for her PhD studies and her thesis focuses on Caribbean economic growth and development primarily through diversification strategies and policies. Her other research interests include Financial Economics, Caribbean economic history and Hurricanes. Ms. Mohan completed her MSc in Economics from the Department of Economics, UWI for which she was awarded the De la Rue Scholarship by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. She also completed her B.Sc. in Economics [Economics (major) and Finance (minor)] with first class honors from the Department of Economics, UWI for which she was awarded a National Scholarship from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

Eric Strobl

Article Title

A Historical Analysis of the Economic Impact of Hurricanes in the Caribbean

Abstract

It is widely accepted that the occurrence of hurricane strikes has shaped economic history in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, apart from the more recent period, there is no quantitative assessment of its true role over time. In this paper we construct a cross-country annual time series of economic production and hurricane strikes dating back to 1700 to then use econometric techniques to estimate the role of these economic shocks on the local economies. More precisely, we use historical accounts of hurricane strike (1700-1850), as well as actual historical hurricane tracks (1850-1950), in conjunction with export data taken from the colonial blue books and other historical sources to create a large panel data set that allows us for the first time to evaluate short- and long-term susceptibility of local production to hurricane strikes. More generally, our results will give us an unprecedented quantitative economic insight into how natural disasters have shaped human economic history.