Large fire disaster and the regional economy: the 2007 case of the Peloponnese

Abstract

The article explores the evolution of annual personal incomes in the Peloponnese, in southern Greece, at the disaggregated (local community) level from 2001 to 2010, i.e., before and after the 2007 fires, in order to better understand the medium-term economic effects of these fires in the burned and other areas of the region outside the fire path. The paper considers a number of econometric approaches and ends up engaging in a series of cross-sectional regressions of income-filer figures and average incomes to study the situation year after year. Findings indicate that, by and large, no inordinate drop or rise in average income figures or income-filer numbers is detected in the aftermath of the fires, especially in the communities damaged by them.