The Effects of Natural Disasters on Price Stability in the Euro Area

Main author: Beirne, John
Other authors: Dafermos, Yannis
Kriwoluzky, Alexander
Renzhi, Nuobu
Volz, Ulrich
Wittich, Jana
Format: Monographs and Working Papers           
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id eprints-36029
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description This paper investigates the impact of natural disasters on price stability in the euro area. We estimate panel and country-specific structural vector autoregression (VAR) models by combining estimated damages of disaster events with monthly data for the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for all euro area countries over the period 1996-2021. Besides estimating the effect on overall headline inflation, we examine effects on its 12 main sub-indices and further sub-categories of food price inflation. This allows us to disentangle differences in the direction and strength of price effects across consumption categories. Our results suggest significant positive effects of natural disasters on overall headline inflation, with diverging results at the sub-index level. Positive inflation effects are particularly pronounced for prices of food and beverages, while negative effects prevail for other sub-indices. Our country-specific results suggest heterogeneous inflation effects of natural disasters across different countries. A key implication of our findings is that climate change is likely to make it increasingly difficult for the European Central bank to achieve its inflation target.
format Monographs and Working Papers
author Beirne, John
author_facet Beirne, John
Dafermos, Yannis
Kriwoluzky, Alexander
Renzhi, Nuobu
Volz, Ulrich
Wittich, Jana
authorStr Beirne, John
author_letter Beirne, John
author2 Dafermos, Yannis
Kriwoluzky, Alexander
Renzhi, Nuobu
Volz, Ulrich
Wittich, Jana
author2Str Dafermos, Yannis
Kriwoluzky, Alexander
Renzhi, Nuobu
Volz, Ulrich
Wittich, Jana
title The Effects of Natural Disasters on Price Stability in the Euro Area
publisher SOAS Department of Economics Working Paper No. 244
publishDate 2021
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/36029/