Natural disasters, technology diversity, and operating performance

Po Hsuan Hsu, Hsiao Hui Lee, Shu Cing Peng, Long Yi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper, we empirically measure the impact of natural disasters on firm-level operating performance and examine if such impact can be mitigated by technology diversification. Using major natural disasters specified by Barrot and Sauvagnat (2015) and factory location data from the toxic release inventory (TRI) database, we first find that firms with factories located in states affected by natural disasters are much less profitable. Second, we find that firms with diversified technologies are significantly less subject to the impact of natural disasters, suggesting that technology diversity enhances firms' sustainability.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)619-630
Number of pages12
JournalReview of Economics and Statistics
Volume100
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2018

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