Rare disaster, economic growth, and disaster risk management with preferences for liquidity

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of preferences for liquidity on the relationship between disasters and growth along with disaster risk management. It further demonstrates that preferences for liquidity lead to less consumption. Moreover, from preferences for liquidity perspective, our model can potentially reconcile the conflicting predictions on the interaction between disasters and growth in the empirical findings. Finally, we find that preferences for liquidity cause policymakers to become more incentivized in mitigating disaster risk and lead them overestimate the welfare benefit of policy instruments.