The Times-Picayune of New Orleans featured a recent paper from the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics about the long-term economic impact on victims of Hurricane Katrina. Authors Tatyana Deryugina, Laura Kawano, and Steven Levitt found that the individual survivors of Katrina bounced back from the storm surprisingly well and improved their economic fortunes more than they might have had the 2005 storm never happened. Despite a modest income drop of $2,300 in the year after the storm, the earnings gap between Katrina survivors and their counterparts in control cities was erased by 2007. By 2008, the average Katrina victim was earning $1,300 more than their counterparts, and by 2013, the difference exceeded $2,300. Read a recent Research Highlight on the study here.