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dc.titleHow Shocks Travel: The Cross-Border Impact of Natural Disasters in Firm Networks
dc.contributor.authorAlviarez, Vanessa
dc.contributor.authorCevallos Fujiy, Brian
dc.contributor.authorEspinoza Escobar, Angel De Jesus
dc.contributor.authorŚwięcki, Tomasz
dc.contributor.orgunitDepartment of Research and Chief Economist
dc.coverageUnited States
dc.date.available2026-10-16T00:10:00
dc.date.issue2026-10-16T00:10:00
dc.description.abstractDo the boundaries of the multinational firm shape how shocks propagate through global production networks? We link U.S. Bill of Lading microdata, geocoded natural disaster records, and cross-border ownership data to trace the transmission of exogenous supply disruptions from foreign suppliers to U.S. importers. Exploiting the quasi-random timing and location of natural disasters in a staggered event-study design, we document that disasters abroad generate sharp, persistent export declines at affected suppliers, shocks that propagate downstream, reducing the growth rate of U.S. importers total purchases by up to 25 percentage points. Transmission, however, is far from uniform: non-MNC buyers contract roughly twice as much as importers belonging to global corporations, and intra-firm relationships contract about a third less than arms-length ones. These patterns point to the internal networks of multinational firms as shock absorbers that attenuate and redirect supply-side disruptions, suggesting that firm boundaries are not merely organizational choices but also determinants of macroeconomic resilience.
dc.format.extent50
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0014564
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/How-Shocks-Travel-The-Cross-Border-Impact-of-Natural-Disasters-in-Firm-Networks.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectService Provider
dc.subjectExternal Shocks
dc.subjectNatural Disaster
dc.subjectSmall Business
dc.subjectDisaster
dc.subjectIntegration and Trade
dc.subjectExport Activity
dc.subjectExport
dc.subject.jelcodeF14 - Empirical Studies of Trade
dc.subject.jelcodeF23 - Multinational Firms • International Business
dc.subject.jelcodeL14 - Transactional Relationships • Contracts and Reputation • Networks
dc.subject.jelcodeL23 - Organization of Production
dc.subject.jelcodeQ54 - Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming
dc.subject.keywordsnatural disasters;Shock propagation;firm-to-firm trade;Multinational firms;Intra-firm trade;Production networks;Firms
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberIDB-WP-01884
idb.operationRG-K1089
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