Deepak Lamba-Nieves

Raúl Santiago-Bartolomei

• Full Report

• Federal Post-María Contracting Monitoring (FPMCM) Dashboard

In the wake of the devastation resulting from hurricane María, the United States Federal Government mobilized numerous emergency relief efforts in Puerto Rico. Traditionally, Federal disaster response has been thought of as the “silver lining” that stems from a catastrophic event, given the millions of US Government dollars that are pumped into the local economy.

The report examines Federal post disaster expenditures and the sectors and companies being contracted. Our primary findings suggest that Federal relief and recovery spending in Puerto Rico is mostly being used to contract mainland US firms. Moreover, existing trends signal that local economic development opportunities stemming from post disaster funding are possibly lower than expected.