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Abstract An environmental event that damages housing and the built environment may result in either a short‐ or long‐term out‐migration response, depending on residents' recovery decisions and hazard tolerance. If residents move only in the immediate disaster aftermath, then out‐migration will be elevated only in the short‐term. However, if disasters increase residents' concerns about future risk, heighten vulnerability, or harm the local economy, then out‐migration may be elevated for years after an event. The substantive aim of this research brief is to evaluate hypotheses about short‐ and long‐term out‐migration responses to the highly destructive 2005 hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico. The methodological aim is to demonstrate a difference‐in‐differences (DID) approach analysing time series data from Gulf Coast counties to compare short‐ and long‐differences in out‐migration probabilities in the treatment and control counties. We find a large short‐term out‐migration response and a smaller sustained increase for the disaster‐affected coastal counties.
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Disasters and corruption: public expectations and tolerance—evidence from Mexico
Disaster corruption is a vexing problem, damaging state legitimacy and exacerbating human suffering. Mexico has a history of both major disasters and persistently high levels of corruption. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2017 provided an opportunity to study change over time in expectations and tolerance of corruption in disaster relief. Twenty years earlier, Mexico City residents expected, on average, essentially three out of 10 hypothetical trucks loaded with humanitarian assistance to be lost to corruption but expressed near zero tolerance of such conduct. By 2018–19, Mexico City residents expected more than one‐half of all relief, six out of 10 trucks, to be stolen, and could tolerate three out of 10 trucks being pilfered. Similar results were found at the national level. Hence, Mexicans appear to be giving up on the state. Addressing corruption in disaster risk reduction and humanitarian relief specifically might provide a template for improving public trust across other state institutions.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2019874
- PAR ID:
- 10442010
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Disasters
- ISSN:
- 0361-3666
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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