Tropical cyclones and economic growth : the importance of considering small island developing states

International audience ; Tropical cyclones are arguably one of the most damaging and threatening natural disasters for human systems. Among other examples, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused the displacement of approximately 650,000 people and destroyed more than 200,000 homes along the US Gulf Coast. A number of empirical studies have explored the short and long-run economic relationship between tropical cyclones and national growth rates, but no general conclusion can be drawn from them so far. While negative effects are found in samples of exposed countries worldwide, cyclone shocks also show no significant influence in other national-level analyses. This suggests that, beyond inequalities in the exposure to cyclonic risk between countries, there is also inequality regarding these extreme weather events' impacts.