This dissertation consists of three chapters in environmental and natural resource economics. In the first chapter, using survey data, I investigate what factors are important in people\u27s evacuation decisions in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. I examine if temporal spillover is present in their decision making and how significant the spillover effect is. With that objective in mind, I examine the effect of previous evacuation experience on future evacuation decision. I also analyze how network effects influence people\u27s evacuation decisions during a natural disaster.
As the threat of climate change grows, communities around the world are facing the dangers of encountering different kinds of natural hazards with higher frequency and intensity. When people are dealing with multiple hazards, exposure to one hazard can trigger or change their risk perception about the other hazard. In the second chapter, I use data from Lake County in Florida to analyze spillover effects in terms of multiple hazards. I examine if people are exposed to one type of natural hazard, whether their concern for another type of natural hazard increases or not. To test my hypothesis, in the second chapter, I analyze if exposure to hurricane Irma triggers people\u27s risk perception about their exposure to the risk of sinkhole and how that added risk perception affects the real estate market.
Until 2007, the sinkhole insurance policy coverage in Florida was not very well defined, and it was very broad. In 2011, a new legislature was passed by the Florida Senate, narrowing the scope of qualifying damage and including some other provisions. The new law was made applicable from July 2016. In the third chapter, I attempt to capture the effect of this new insurance law on people\u27s risk perception and how that transformed risk perception is reflected in the housing prices.
The main focus of this dissertation is to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of different types of spillover effects of risk averting behaviors in response to natural hazard risks
