Disponible también en formato electrónico.

Resumen.

Bibliografía.

Because of their uncertain and destructive nature, natural disasters can
pose severe shocks to societies and jurisdictions across all levels of
government. Disaster-related financial risk is a critical problem in developing
countries where people are highly vulnerable to the losses of natural
hazards and climate change. This study empirically examines the fiscal
impact of natural disasters at the provincial government level in China.
Using a panel vector autoregression model, we find that natural disasters
increase a province’s total governmental spending and intergovernmental
revenues received from the central government while having little effect on
its tax revenues. In particular, earthquakes and tropical storms cause larger impacts on spending and intergovernmental transfers. We also show that
governments in higher-income Chinese provinces experience larger
increases in spending and intergovernmental transfer following natural
disasters than lower-income provincial governments. Our results provide
important implications for the financial management of disaster risks in the
developing context.