The ongoing climate crisis has been influencing both the frequency and the intensity of rainfall, leading to a rise in the occurrence of harmful hydrogeological events. Italy is highly exposed to hydrogeological hazards, for both natural and anthropogenic reasons. Using a new dataset on landslides and floods affecting Italian municipalities from 2010 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of such calamities on firms' survival and performance.
Firms located in municipalities affected by hydrogeological disasters have a 7 per cent higher probability of exiting the market compared with others. If they survive, in the three years after the event, firms experience an average decline in their revenues and number of employees of about 5 and 2 per cent respectively. Negative impacts are greater for micro-small, younger and low-technology firms.
