Disaster Impact and Input- Output Analysis

Macroeconomics models, such as the input–output model, the social accounting matrix, and the computable general equilibrium model, have been used for impact analysis of catastrophic disasters for some time. While the use of such models to disaster situation, which may quite differ from the ordinary economic setting, has been critiqued (for recent example, see Albala-Bertrand, 2013), there are still valuable reasons for the use of such models. In particular, such models can be used in order to quickly provide a ballpark estimate of the system-wide impact for recovery plan and finance and/or to evaluate disaster countermeasures in the pre-event period. This paper presents how these methodologies have evolved to incorporate with disaster-specific feature and discusses how far they still need to go from the current stage. This paper also serves as a preface to this special issue, which encompasses several papers devoted to the use of macroeconomic data and models to assess economic losses from disasters.