Public sector corruption and major earthquakes: A potentially deadly interaction.

Recent studies have identified various negative effects of public sector corruption. We add to these by considering the association between corruption and deaths due to major earthquakes. After developing a brief theoretical model of the relation between these two variables we test the proposition by analyzing 344 quakes occurring between 1975 and 2003. The empirical model takes into account the endogeneity of corruption and controls for factors, such as earthquake frequency, magnitude, distance from population centers, and a country’s level of development which influence quake destructiveness. The results indicate that public sector corruption is positively related to earthquake deaths

Traffic Fatalities and Public Sector Corruption

Traffic accidents result in 1 million deaths annually worldwide, though the burden is disproportionately felt in poorer countries. Typically, fatality rates from disease and accidents fall as countries develop. Traffic deaths, however, regularly increase with income, at least up to a threshold level, before declining. While we confirm this by analyzing 1,356 country‐year observations between 1982 and 2000, our purpose is to consider the role played by public sector corruption in determining traffic fatalities. We find that such corruption, independent of income, plays a significant role in the epidemics of traffic fatalities that are common in relatively poor countries

The Ill Effects of Public Sector Corruption in the Water and Sanitation Sector

In general, given a particular set of institutions, the greater a county’s per capita income, the more extensive will be its provision of goods and services that require concerted public action. We contend that one of the most important aspects of institutions in this regard is public sector corruption. We test this contention by analyzing 85 countries observed in 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2004—the only years for which data on improved drinking water and adequate sanitation are available. The models point to statistically significant, negative relations between corruption and access to both improved drinking water and adequate sanitation. (JEL D31, H41, P16

From Cholera Outbreaks to Pandemics: The Role of Poverty and Inequality

Cholera and other diarrheal diseases are the second leading cause of death among the poor globally. The tragedy of this statistic is that it need not be the case. Unlike many afflictions, the impact of cholera can be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, through the provision of clean water services. This begs the question of why such provision is absent in much of the world. It is our contention that the provision of clean water services is an increasing function of both a country's level of income and income equality. We test these hypotheses by analyzing 1,032 annual observations arising from 55 relatively poor countries between the years 1980 and 2002. In the primary part of the analysis, we find that providing clean water is, as predicted, an increasing function of income and equality. Following this, and consistent with the existing epidemiological research on cholera, we find that both the numbers of cases and deaths resulting from a given cholera outbreak are strongly and negatively related to the provision of clean water

Fight Against Organized Crime and Resilience to Climate Change. A Relationship of Mutual Causality

The effects of climate change are beginning to be felt around the world with rising temperatures, changing precipitation levels, more frequent and severe storms and longer more intensive droughts threatening human life and livelihoods and damaging property and infrastructure. As such, society in all countries – both developing and developed – need to increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change, where resilience is the ability of a system to absorb stresses and adapt in ways that improve the overall sustainability of the system; enabling it to be better prepared for future climate change impacts. In this context, a climate resilient society is one that is: reflective (learns from experiences); robust (both people and infrastructure can withstand the impacts of extreme conditions); forward-thinking (with plans made to ensure systems function during extreme events); flexible (so systems and plans can change, evolve or adopt alternative strategies); resourceful (to respond quickly to extreme events); inclusive (so all communities including the vulnerable are involved in planning); and integrated (so people, systems, decision-making and investments are mutually supportive of common goals). The Climate Resilient Societies Major Reference Work includes chapters covering a range of themes that provide readers with an invaluable overview on how various levels of government have attempted to create climate resilient societies. In particular, each chapter, under its respective theme, will address how a government, or series of governments, at various levels in non-OECD and/or OECD countries, have implemented innovative climate resilient policies that seek synergies across strategies, choices and actions, in an attempt to build a climate resilient society. Each chapter will address one specific sub-theme out of the population of themes covered in the Major Reference Work: Water, Energy, Agriculture and Food Built environment and Infrastructure, Transport, Human health, Society, and Disaster

The Shocking Origins of Political Transitions: Evidence from Earthquakes

Do earthquakes trigger political transitions? Using a rich panel dataset of 160 countries observed over 1950–2007, we find that earthquake shocks, measured in terms of the effect of ground-motion amplitude on death toll, have two contradicting effects on political change. On the one hand, earthquakes drive transitions into democracy due to an affective shock, which we interpret to be the reaction of citizens by which they hold the incumbent government responsible for earthquake damages. On the other hand, earthquakes indirectly hasten transitions into a less democratic regime because they increase the income level contemporaneously, possibly due to short-term emergency response and recovery expenditures, and thus, raising the opportunity cost of contesting the incumbent government. Overall, we show that, while not leading to a full-fledged regime transition, earthquake shocks open a new democratic window of opportunity, but this window is narrowed by improved economic conditions