Research

Professor Ilan Noy and his team of researchers study the economics of disasters, including earthquakes, epidemics, droughts, and cyclones.

Blazing forest fire — Forest fire. Photo: NASA

What makes a disaster?

The seriousness of a disaster depends on the combination of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. A hazard might be a tropical cyclone. Exposure describes the people, assets, and ecosystems that are present when and where the cyclone occurs. And vulnerability reflects the ability of the cyclone to harm or damage whatever was exposed to it. For example, a cyclone becomes a disaster when it hits land if, and only if, there is infrastructure there that can be damaged by its force. The same is true for other hazards, like earthuquakes, drought, or epidemics.

What we research

Our research group studies the economic impact of disasters both in New Zealand and overseas. Some of the main areas of research focus include:

measuring the short- and long-term impacts of disasters on communities and economies
devising new tools for measuring the cost of disasters
quantifying post-disaster emergency aid and fiscal needs
developing risk transfer tools, and
investigating and projecting shocks to different sectors of the economy, such as insurance, property, health, education, or agriculture.

Who we work with

The team's research is often multi-disciplinary and performed in collaboration with academics and practitioners in such fields as planning, geography, hydrology, and atmospheric physics. We work closely with other research initiatives in New Zealand, including:

Ilan is the founding editor of Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, a journal launched in 2017 and published by Springer Nature.