Despite a growing number of studies on the effects of tropical cyclones on economic growth, not much is known about their effects on income inequality. This paper addresses this question by using a panel data set of U.S. counties affected during the period 2010–2019. It exploits geophysical information to construct the disaster intensity predictor, and shows that storm shocks significantly decrease local income inequality levels in the year that they occur. A close study of the composition effects reveals several interesting patterns. First, the immediate impact is driven by the two lowest quintiles and the top quintile of the income distribution. Second, the beneficial effects on income inequality are stabilised in the short-run and the frequency of events is a crucial parameter to consider as repeatedly exposed counties exhibit larger responses after a cyclone strike than their rarely exposed counterparts. Finally, among others, this study stresses the importance of social safety nets in counteracting tropical cyclones’ adverse income distributional effects.

尽管关于热带气旋对经济增长影响的研究越来越多，但对其对收入不平等的影响知之甚少。本文通过使用 2010-2019 年期间受影响的美国县的面板数据集来解决这个问题。它利用地球物理信息来构建灾害强度预测器，并表明风暴冲击在发生的那一年显着降低了当地的收入不平等水平。对成分效应的仔细研究揭示了几个有趣的模式。首先，直接影响是由收入分配的两个最低五分之一和最高五分之一驱动的。第二，对收入不平等的有益影响在短期内得到稳定，事件发生的频率是一个需要考虑的关键参数，因为反复受到飓风袭击的县比很少受到影响的县在飓风袭击后表现出更大的反应。最后，除其他外，本研究强调了社会安全网在抵消热带气旋对收入分配的不利影响方面的重要性。