ABSTRACT
Other chapters in this volume examine in detail the impact of (changes in) specific extreme weather events for a number of case studies. Tol (Chapter 13, this volume) discusses the implications of changes in extreme weather for the insurance industry. This chapter has a broader goal: the impact of weather disasters and disaster management on the economy as a whole, in both the short and the long term. The literature pays little attention to this complicated issue, so most of the analysis below is original. It should be noted that the larger part of the discussion in this chapter is strictly economic. Attention is restricted to the impact of (changes in) extreme weather on the economy through the loss and reallocation of economic assets (see also Zeckhauser, 1996).
