Natural disasters cause serious economic and human losses. Yet there remains ambiguity in the existing literature with regard to their impact on the economy at large. This study re-examines the relationship between natural disasters and economic growth. It aims to contribute to a fairly limited literature on the economy-wide and sector-specific consequences of natural disasters in the short-to-medium term (up to 5 years). Further, it examines whether the disaster impacts are dependent on a country’s level of development. Based on panel data consisting of 102 (29 developed and 73 developing) countries over the period 1981–2015, it looks at the growth effects of four types of natural disasters, namely, floods, droughts, storms and earthquakes that were explored using the system generalised method of moments (GMM) approach. The results indicate that natural disasters have diverse economic impacts across economic sectors depending on disaster types and their intensity. The study confirms the findings of previous studies that the economic impacts of natural disasters are statistically stronger in developing countries. These findings may stimulate the policymakers especially in developing countries to explore the efficacy of viable ex-ante disaster risk financing tools (such as insurance, micro-insurance and catastrophic bonds). This would not only safeguard population and physical assets but also ensure adherence to the sustainable development goals. JEL Classification: Q54, O10

The life insurance industry in developing Asian economies is underdeveloped compared with global standards. The low market penetration is attributed to full or partial government ownership and entry restrictions on foreign insurers. Regulatory changes and adoption of liberal policies have aided the growth of the life insurance industry in the past decade. At the same time, economic and social factors were expected to promote insurance awareness and consumption. In this context, the paper analyses the factors explaining life insurance demand in 12 Asian economies, including economies from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and Association of Southeast Asian Nations regions, as well as China. The results suggest that income, financial depth, inflation, the real interest rate, and the youth dependency ratio are significant determinants of life insurance consumption. Foreign ownership and improved regulations may foster growth. But urbanisation and the literacy rate are among the few determinants found not to have the impact observed in previous studies. The research highlights the limitations of studies using macrodata and contributes to understanding of the growing insurance industry in the region.

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