IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/jeehcn/v10y2000i4n4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of Government in Responding to Natural Catastrophes

Author

Listed:
  • Arnold N. Scott

    (University of Alabama)

Abstract

Aux Etats-Unis les gouvernements des Etats tout autant que le gouvernement fédéral jouent un rôle important dans le traitement des effets des sinistres naturels. Le gouvernement fédéral subventionne l'assurance-inondations pour les individus, les entreprises privées et les gouvernements d'Etats et locaux, et il affecte des fonds sur une base ad hoc pour reconstruire après de très importants sinistres naturels tels que de fortes inondations ou des tremblements de terre. Les gouvernements des Etats réglementent l'assurance-seïsme (en Californie) et l'assurance-ouragan (en Floride) en imposant à l'ensemble des assurances et à certains de leurs utilisateurs de subventionner d'autres assurés. Cet article analyse les diverses formes d'implications gouvernementales dans l'assistance des sinistres et évalue de manière critique les arguments normatifs pour ces formes de participations et de réglementations. Il propose que le gouvernement fédéral se retire du marché de l'assurance-inondation et que les gouvernements des états arrêtent de réglementer les marchés d'assurance privés qui obligent des gens à subventionner l'assurance pour d'autres.Government at both the state and federal level in the United States has an extensive role in dealing with the effects of natural disasters. The federal government provides subsidized flood insurance to private individuals, businesses, and state and local government, and it appropriates f unds on an ad hoc basis for rebuilding after highly visible natural disasters such as large floods and earthquakes. State governments regulate earthquake insurance (California) and hurricane insurance (in Florida) in ways that force the insurance industry and some of its customers to subsidize other policyholders. This essay details the various forms of government involvement in disaster assistance and critically evaluates the normative arguments for these forms of government involvement and regulation. It proposes that the federal government should withdraw from the flood insurance market and that state governments should stop regulating private insurance markets in such a way that some people are forced to subsidize insurance for others.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnold N. Scott, 2000. "The Role of Government in Responding to Natural Catastrophes," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 10(4), pages 1-24, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:jeehcn:v:10:y:2000:i:4:n:4
    DOI: 10.2202/1145-6396.1136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1136
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1145-6396.1136?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Epstein, Richard A, 1996. "Catastrophic Responses to Catastrophic Risks," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 12(2-3), pages 287-308, May.
    2. David Moss, 1999. "Courting Disaster? The Transformation of Federal Disaster Policy since 1803," NBER Chapters, in: The Financing of Catastrophe Risk, pages 307-362, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Priest, George L, 1996. "The Government, the Market, and the Problem of Catastrophic Loss," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 12(2-3), pages 219-237, May.
    4. Christopher Lewis & Kevin C. Murdock, 1999. "Alternative Means of Redistributing Catastrophic Risk in a National Risk-Management System," NBER Chapters, in: The Financing of Catastrophe Risk, pages 51-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arnold N. Scott, 2000. "The Role Of Government In Responding To Natural Catastrophes," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 10(4), pages 505-526, December.
    2. Jef Mot & Michael Faure, 2019. "Public authority liability and the cost of disasters," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 44(4), pages 760-783, October.
    3. Steven Shavell, 2014. "A General Rationale for a Governmental Role in the Relief of Large Risks," NBER Working Papers 20192, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Michel-Kerjan Erwann & de Marcellis-Warin Nathalie, 2006. "Public-Private Programs for Covering Extreme Events: The Impact of Information Distribution on Risk-Sharing," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 1(2), pages 1-30, February.
    5. Merrifield, John, 2002. "A general equilibrium analysis of the insurance bonding approach to pollution threats," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 103-115, January.
    6. Steven Shavell, 2014. "A general rationale for a governmental role in the relief of large risks," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 213-234, December.
    7. Nathalie de Marcelis-Warin & Erwann Michel-Kerjan, 2003. "Catastrophe risk sharing and public-private partnerships : From natural disasters to terrorism," Working Papers hal-00242981, HAL.
    8. Qihao He & Michael Faure, 2024. "Strengthening Resilience and Sustainability for Post-Disaster Recovery: A Comparative Law and Economics Analysis on Smart Mixes Between Mechanisms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-27, November.
    9. Qihao He & Michael Faure & Chengwei Liu, 2023. "The possibilities and limits of insurance as governance in insuring pandemics," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 48(3), pages 641-668, July.
    10. Véronique Bruggeman & Michael G. Faure & Miriam Haritz, 2008. "Schadensersatz für Opfer von Naturkatastrophen: ein Vergleich zwischen Belgien und den Niederlanden," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 77(4), pages 18-43.
    11. Yu Yan & Michael Faure, 2021. "Government interventions in microinsurance: evidence from China," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 46(3), pages 440-467, July.
    12. Kjell Hausken, 2002. "Probabilistic Risk Analysis and Game Theory," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 17-27, February.
    13. J. David Cummins & Michael Suher & George Zanjani, 1975. "Federal Financial Exposure to Natural Catastrophe Risk," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Managing Federal Financial Risk, pages 61-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Brown, Jeffrey R. & Cummins, J. David & Lewis, Christopher M. & Wei, Ran, 2004. "An empirical analysis of the economic impact of federal terrorism reinsurance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 861-898, July.
    15. Susana Ferreira, 2024. "Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change: Economic Impacts and Adaptation Policies," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 207-231, October.
    16. Qimeng Pan & Lysa Porth & Hong Li, 2022. "Assessing the Effectiveness of the Actuaries Climate Index for Estimating the Impact of Extreme Weather on Crop Yield and Insurance Applications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-24, June.
    17. George Halkos & Argyro Zisiadou, 2020. "Is Investors’ Psychology Affected Due to a Potential Unexpected Environmental Disaster?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-24, July.
    18. Paul Raschky & Hannelore Weck-Hannemann, 2007. "Charity hazard - A real hazard to natural disaster insurance," Working Papers 2007-04, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    19. Nell, Martin & Richter, Andreas, 2004. "Catastrophic events as threats to society: Private and public risk management strategies," Working Papers on Risk and Insurance 12, University of Hamburg, Institute for Risk and Insurance.
    20. Dobes Leo & Jotzo Frank & Stern David I., 2014. "The Economics of Global Climate Change: A Historical Literature Review," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 65(3), pages 281-320, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:jeehcn:v:10:y:2000:i:4:n:4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.