IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/endeec/v22y2017i03p249-273_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technological innovation, social learning and natural hazard mitigation: evidence on earthquake fatalities

Author

Listed:
  • Miao, Qing

Abstract

How do people learn from disasters? Do they constantly develop and accumulate new knowledge that enables them to address recurrent disaster risks? This paper investigates whether social learning and, in particular, the development of earthquake-mitigating technologies reduces earthquake-induced fatalities. Combining patent data with a global cross-section of 894 earthquakes that occurred between 1980 and 2010, we find that countries with more disaster-mitigating innovations and more earthquake exposure in the past suffer fewer fatalities. This study is the first to empirically examine the role of technological change and social learning in disaster mitigation. It sheds light on knowledge as a key element of adaptive capacity, and suggests the importance of incorporating technology development into a long-term hazard mitigation and adaptation policy. The paper also contributes to the empirical disaster literature as the first to address the problem of missing data on disaster losses.

Suggested Citation

  • Miao, Qing, 2017. "Technological innovation, social learning and natural hazard mitigation: evidence on earthquake fatalities," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 249-273, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:endeec:v:22:y:2017:i:03:p:249-273_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1355770X1700002X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meri Davlasheridze & Qing Miao, 2021. "Does post-disaster aid promote community resilience? Evidence from federal disaster programs," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 109(1), pages 63-88, October.
    2. Antoine Dechezlepretre & Sam Fankhauser & Matthieu Glachant & Jan Stoever & Simon Touboul, 2020. "Invention and Global Diffusion of Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation," World Bank Publications - Reports 33883, The World Bank Group.
    3. Simon Touboul & Matthieu Glachant & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Sam Fankhauser & Jana Stoever, 2023. "Invention and Global Diffusion of Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation: A Patent Analysis," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 316-335.

    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:cup:endeec:v:22:y:2017:i:03:p:249-273_00. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ede .

    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.