Economic paper making immediate impact

Research by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC has produced one of 2019’s most popular papers published in an economic journal.

Prof Mehmet Ulubasoglu – director of the Centre for Energy, the Environment and Natural Disasters at Deakin University – is the lead researcher in the CRC’s Optimising post-disaster recovery interventions in Australia project.

Alongside Dr Muhammad Rahman (Monash University), Dr Yasin Kursat Onder, Dr Yiqun Chen (University of Melbourne) and Prof Abbas Rajabifard (University of Melbourne), Prof Ulubasolglu authored a paper titled Floods, bushfires and sectoral economic output in Australia, 1978–2014, which analysed the direct effects of floods and bushfires on gross value of different economic sectors. They found that floods result in adverse, long-lasting effects on outputs of agriculture, mining, construction and financial services sectors. For example, a state that experiences a flood one year will see 5–6 per cent lower agricultural output in that year and the following year compared to a state without a flood.

Their paper appeared in The Economic Record – the flagship journal of the Economic Society of Australia – and has gone on to become one of the most popular papers of 2019, being among the top 10 per cent of papers downloaded from the journal that year.

“Your research generated immediate impact,” said an acknowedgment from Wiley.

Congratulations to Prof Ulubasolglu and his team on this great achievement. You can learn more about the research and the paper here.