Macro-Economic Effects of Hurricanes (Ref.: Central America)

Combining this index with a macroeconomic data for a panel of countries in the area we estimate that the loss in output growth for an average hurricane is about 0.8 percentage points, but that the most destructive hurricane would have caused on average a reduction in the growth rate of about 7.6 percentage points.

Source.

Higher education in Central America

This is an area where more research is needed. But this is an interesting paper by Bashir and Luque: "Equity in Tertiary Education in Central America: An Overview." 

The authors miss an important point of the supply of higher education: they do not talk about the barriers to entry in these countries. Take the case of Guatemala for example where a Board that includes the existing universities approves new entrants (very odd!). It can take years to approve new entrants, like five or six years. And if you want to launch a purely new online university, good luck, the legislation does not know how to deal with that. Of course there is the issue of quality, but again the barriers to entry are enormous.