Consumption Disasters: A Global Dataset

A number of studies suggest that macro-finance models incorporating the risk of extremely large drops in consumption can explain many financial phenomena. This literature is based on the data for a limited number of countries and a relatively small number of disasters in the post-World War II period. Our study constructs a global dataset on consumption disasters. We identify 498 consumption disasters in 212 countries after World War II and provide data on the probability, size, and duration of disasters for the total sample and different groups of countries. We also explore the recovery of consumption after disasters.