Measuring the Effects of Humanitarian Operations on Economic Performance
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-3-2026
Abstract
This essay uses event study methodology to demonstrate the economic impact of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster recovery operations. The results indicate that the Individual & Households programme, which reimburses individual losses, has the greatest positive effect on economic growth, and the impact is seen 2 years after the disaster hits. It is shown that more money spent through FEMA has a positive effect on economic recovery but it is not seen until 2 years after a disaster and that the time it takes for the government to declare a disaster, to activate FEMA response, has long‐term economic effects. Abstract © Wiley.
Source Publication
Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management (ISSN 0966-0879 | eISSN 1468-5973)
Recommended Citation
Sabol, M. 2026. “ Measuring the Effects of Humanitarian Operations on Economic Performance.” Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 34: e70117. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.70117.
Comments
© 2026 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This work was published online ahead of inclusion in the March 2026 issue of the source journal, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management.
The full article is accessible by subscription or purchase using the DOI link below.
Data was collected from open sources as described in the manuscript and is consolidated into one dataset that can be found at the ICSPR dataset provided in the submission. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in “The Politics of Disaster Relief Operations: The Case of U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA” at https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/217841/version/V1/view). The dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.