Small Business vulnerability to floods and the effects of disaster loans Academic Article

abstract

• 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York. In this paper, we examine the impacts of floods on businesses and the efficacy of small business administration (SBA) disaster loans on mitigating disaster aftereffects. We find lack of business adaptation to extreme events in the short term, indicating their extreme vulnerability to flood disasters. Our results further indicate that subsidized disaster loans are important for businesses, with statistically significant effects estimated for businesses employing fewer than 50 people. At the margin, for every additional dollar spent on disaster loans per establishment in a county, four small businesses survive. Gloomy projections about increasing frequency and severity of disasters imply there will be significant loss in local economic activities because of increased vulnerability of small businesses to these incidents. Moreover, these effects will have implications nationwide, given the vital role small businesses play in creating jobs.

authors

• Davlasheridze, Meri

published proceedings

• SMALL BUSINESS ECONOMICS

author list (cited authors)

• Davlasheridze, M., & Geylani, P. C.

citation count

• 17

publication date

• December 2017

publisher

• Springer Nature  Publisher

keywords

• Business Establishment
• Flood Disasters
• Sba
• Small Business Disaster Loans

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1007/s11187-017-9859-5

start page

• 865

end page

• 888

volume

• 49

issue

• 4

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9859-5

user-defined tag

• 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
• 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth