HR: 12:05h
AN: U32B-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Democracy, GDP, and the Impact of Natural Disasters
AU: van der Vink, G
EM: gvdv@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: * Brett, A P
EM: abrett@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Burgess, E
EM: eburgess@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Cecil-Cockwell, D
EM: dcecil@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Chicoine, A
EM: chicoine@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: DiFiore, P
EM: pdifiore@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Harding, J
EM: jjhardin@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Millian, C
EM: cmillian@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Olivi, E
EM: eolivi@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Piaskowy, S
EM: piaskowy@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Sproat, J
EM: jsproat@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: van der Hoop, H
EM: hlvan@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Walsh, P
EM: pamelaw@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Warren, A
EM: amwarren@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: West, L
EM: lwest@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AU: Wright, G
EM: gwright@princeton.edu
AF: Department of Geosciences Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
AB: In 1998 Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize in economics for the observation that there has never been a famine in a nation with a democratic form of government and a free press. We find that a similar relationship can be demonstrated for all natural disasters. Data from the United Nations Food Programme and the United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance is used to display strong correlations between the democracy index, GDP, and the humanitarian impact of natural disasters. We find that nations in which disasters have high humanitarian impact, approximated by lives lost, are also nations which are below the median per capita GDP and the median democracy level. While the response to natural disasters varies from country to country, several additional global trends are observed. Since 1964, the number of recorded natural disasters has increased by a factor of five. During this same time period the number of deaths has decreased significantly. In particular, the humanitarian impact of the 'typical' natural disaster has decreased by a factor of five. Post-disaster foreign aid is the common response from the international community when a natural disaster strikes. Our study also compares the history of foreign aid grants distributed by the US Office of Foreign Disaster Aid (OFDA) with the number of deaths worldwide from natural disasters. We find that the amount of aid given is responsive to the degree of global humanitarian impact.
UR: http:www.princeton.edu/~abrett/Geo
DE: 0468 Natural hazards
DE: 6300 POLICY SCIENCES (7964)
DE: 6319 Institutions
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly