Is Corruption Always Bad for Post-Disaster Economic Recovery?

Lead PI: Dr John Colin Mutter

Unit Affiliation: Cross-Cutting Initiative (CCI)

July 2011 - December 2012
Inactive
Global
Project Type: Research

DESCRIPTION: This project explored the implications of corruption and efficiency/growth to natural disaster events in developing countries. Economic reconstruction following disasters is a complex process and some countries find it more difficult to recover from devastation than others do. This proposal focused on corruption; having a clear understanding of the role corruption plays in disaster recovery will provide new insights into the determinants of post-disaster economic performance.

OUTCOMES: The outcomes of this project seek to address post-disaster recovery and corruption inquiries to identify broad empirical patterns in the corruption-recovery relationship such as “Does corruption have a uniformly negative effect on post-disaster recovery”?” and “which types of ‘good governance’ are beneficial to post-disaster economic recovery?” These studies will include a cross-country regression analysis that estimates the impact of corruption utilizing GDP growth and changes in welfare; examining aspects of governance and corruption impact recovery; and using descriptive data analysis to assess whether corruption indices vary significantly between these two groups.

SPONSOR:

The Earth Institute

FUNDED AMOUNT:

$12,000

RESEARCH TEAM:

Sonali Deraniyagala

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COLLABORATORS:

Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS:

University of London

KEYWORDS

post-disaster recovery climate and society economic performance natural disaster corruption

THEMES

Restless earth