Economic losses from natural disasters have been increasing in recent decades. This has been attributed mainly to population and economic growth in disaster-prone areas. Future natural disaster losses are expected to increase due to a continued increase in economic exposure and climate change. This highlights the importance of designing policies that can mitigate the impacts of these disasters on the economy and society. A rapidly expanding literature has estimated the direct (e.g., property damage) and indirect (e.g., gross domestic product growth, trade) economic impacts of natural disasters. This article reviews this emerging literature. We synthesize the main theoretical, computational, and empirical methods used, summarize key findings on the economic impacts of natural disasters, and discuss factors that have been found to mitigate disaster impacts. We conclude by identifying lessons for policymakers and outlining an agenda for future research in this field.

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自然灾害的经济影响：模型和实证研究综述

近几十年来，自然灾害造成的经济损失一直在增加。这主要归因于易受灾地区的人口和经济增长。由于经济风险和气候变化的持续增加，未来的自然灾害损失预计会增加。这凸显了设计可减轻这些灾难对经济和社会影响的政策的重要性。迅速增长的文献已经估计了自然灾害的直接（例如财产损失）和间接（例如国内生产总值增长，贸易）经济影响。本文回顾了这一新兴文献。我们综合了使用的主要理论，计算和经验方法，总结了有关自然灾害的经济影响的主要发现，并讨论已发现的减轻灾害影响的因素。最后，我们为决策者确定了经验教训，并概述了该领域未来研究的议程。