Disaster research has been studied from many angles, seldom targeting its implications for vulnerable territories in Africa. Entities most subject to the effects of climate change are often ...undeveloped and located in disadvantaged regions. Post-disaster communities need to scrutinize the social, political, economic, and cultural structures that stagnate sustainable growth. Acknowledging that low economic development and high climate costs cannot coexist, this collected volume interrogates the challenge for disaster-prone territories to determine strategies for restructuring and redesigning their environment. This book proposes the creation of knowledge economies, whereby empowered communities may produce innovative knowledge translatable across the African diaspora.
It has been suggested that disasters might have positive economic consequences, through the accelerated replacement of capital. This possibility is referred to as the productivity effect. This effect ...is investigated using a model with embodied technical change. In this framework, disasters can influence the production level but cannot influence the growth rate, in the same way than the saving ratio in a Solow-like model. Depending on reconstruction quality, indeed, accounting for embodied technical change can either decrease or increase disaster costs, but is never able to turn disasters into positive events. Moreover, a better but slower reconstruction amplifies the short-term consequences of disasters, but pays off over the long-term. Regardless, the productivity effect cannot prevent the existence of a bifurcation when disaster damages exceed the reconstruction capacity, potentially leading to poverty traps.
•Comprehensive analysis of the effects of natural disasters on the income distribution in the entire United States and for all types of natural disasters.•Differentiation between individual and ...household-based measures.•Analysis of adaptation and intensification channels.•Middle incomes are particularly affected by natural disasters.
During the last decades, the United States experienced an increase in the number of natural disasters and their destructive capability. Several studies suggest a damaging effect of natural disasters on income. In this paper, I estimate the effects of natural disasters on the entire income distribution using county-level data in the United States. In particular, I determine the income fractions that are affected by natural disasters. The results suggest that in the short-term natural disasters primarily affect middle incomes, thereby leaving income inequality levels unchanged. In addition, the paper examines potential channels that intensify or mitigate the effects, such as unemployment insurance or disaster severity. The findings show that unemployment benefits are an important adaptation tool that reduces the effects of natural disasters. In contrast, the occurrence of multiple and severe disasters aggravate the effects. Finally, the analysis detects heterogeneous effects on incomes by disaster type.
We provide empirical evidence that Rwandans use the mobile phone network to transfer airtime to those affected by unexpected shocks. Using an extensive dataset on mobile phone activity in Rwanda and ...exploiting the quasi-random timing and location of natural disasters, we show that individuals make transfers and calls to people affected by disasters. The magnitude of these transfers is small in absolute terms, but statistically significant; in response to the Lake Kivu earthquake of 2008, we estimate that roughly US$84 in airtime was transferred to individuals in the affected region, that 70% of these transfers were immediately used to make outgoing calls, and that US$16,959 was spent calling those near the epicenter. Unlike other forms of interpersonal transfers, mobile airtime is sent over large geographic distances and in response to covariate shocks. Transfers are more likely to be sent to wealthy individuals, and are sent predominantly between pairs of individuals with a strong history of reciprocal favor exchange.
Abstract
Uncertainty rises in recessions and falls in booms. But what is the causal relationship? We construct cross-country panel data on stock market returns to proxy for first- and second-moment ...shocks and instrument these with natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and political shocks. Our IV regression results reveal a robust negative short-term impact of second moments (uncertainty) on growth. Employing multiple vector autoregression estimation approaches, relying on a range of identifying assumptions, also reveals a negative impact of uncertainty on growth. Finally, we show that these results are reproducible in a conventional micro–macro business cycle model with time-varying uncertainty.
'Extreme' events - including climatic events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, drought - can cause massive disruption to society, including large death tolls and property damage in the billions of ...dollars. Events in recent years have shown the importance of being prepared and that countries need to work together to help alleviate the resulting pain and suffering. This volume presents an integrated review of the broad research field of large-scale disasters. It establishes a common framework for predicting, controlling and managing both manmade and natural disasters. There is a particular focus on events caused by weather and climate change. Other topics include air pollution, tsunamis, disaster modeling, the use of remote sensing and the logistics of disaster management. It will appeal to scientists, engineers, first responders and health-care professionals, in addition to graduate students and researchers who have an interest in the prediction, prevention or mitigation of large-scale disasters.
The spread of true and false news online Vosoughi, Soroush; Roy, Deb; Aral, Sinan
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
03/2018, Letnik:
359, Številka:
6380
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We investigated the differential diffusion of all of the verified true and false news stories distributed on Twitter from 2006 to 2017. The data comprise ~126,000 stories tweeted by ~3 million people ...more than 4.5 million times. We classified news as true or false using information from six independent fact-checking organizations that exhibited 95 to 98% agreement on the classifications. Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information, and the effects were more pronounced for false political news than for false news about terrorism, natural disasters, science, urban legends, or financial information. We found that false news was more novel than true news, which suggests that people were more likely to share novel information. Whereas false stories inspired fear, disgust, and surprise in replies, true stories inspired anticipation, sadness, joy, and trust. Contrary to conventional wisdom, robots accelerated the spread of true and false news at the same rate, implying that false news spreads more than the truth because humans, not robots, are more likely to spread it.
Humans tackle natural disasters all over the world. Humanitarian supply chain plays an important role to mitigate damages occurred after a disaster. This research formulates a multi-objective ...Mixed-Integer Non-Linear programming (MINLP) with uncertain parameters considering Relief Centers (RC), Demand Points (DP) in affected areas, transportation methods to deliver Relief Items (RI) and different types of RIs namely, perishable and imperishable. In pre-disaster stage, location and number of RCs with their prepositioned inventory level are determined. After disaster strikes, based on a distribution plan the amount of RIs that should be transported to DPs and number of needed vehicles are determined. The objective functions minimize the total distance traveled by RIs, total costs (including RC establish cost, inventory cost, fixed cost for each vehicle type and acquisition cost for RIs), maximum traveling time between RCs and DPs and number of perished items respectively. The proposed model is solved by GAMS software for small size test problems and Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (GOA) as a meta-heuristic approach for large size problems. Numerical and computational results are provided to prove the efficiency and feasibility of the presented model. Finally, the developed model is implemented to Iran's flood in 2019 as a case study.
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•Proposing a humanitarian logistics with uncertain parameters.•Considering different type of transporters in order to deliver relief items.•Considering time window for loading and unloading relief items on transporters.•Considering perishable goods in relief items.
Do voters effectively hold elected officials accountable for policy decisions? Using data on natural disasters, government spending, and election returns, we show that voters reward the incumbent ...presidential party for delivering disaster relief spending, but not for investing in disaster preparedness spending. These inconsistencies distort the incentives of public officials, leading the government to underinvest in disaster preparedness, thereby causing substantial public welfare losses. We estimate that $1 spent on preparedness is worth about $15 in terms of the future damage it mitigates. By estimating both the determinants of policy decisions and the consequences of those policies, we provide more complete evidence about citizen competence and government accountability.
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