IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eei/rpaper/eeri_rp_2011_10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Death Caused By Natural Disasters: The Role Of Ethnic Heterogeneity

Author

Listed:
  • Eiji Yamamura

Abstract

Kahn (2005) found that ethnic heterogeneity reduces the number of deaths caused by natural disasters, a finding that is contrary to theoretical predictions. This paper casts doubt on this finding and uses cross-country data from 1965 to 2008 to conduct a re-estimation. To alleviate omitted variable bias, a legal origin dummy and additional economic variables are incorporated as independent variables. Further, to control for measurement problems, I have included an ethnic fractionalization index and an ethnic polarization index to capture ethnic heterogeneity. The key finding is that ethnic polarization is positively related to number of deaths, while ethnic fractionalization is not. This implies that ethnic polarization increases the level of damage caused by natural disasters, and is a more appropriate measure for ethnic heterogeneity than ethnic fractionalization.

Suggested Citation

  • Eiji Yamamura, 2011. "Death Caused By Natural Disasters: The Role Of Ethnic Heterogeneity," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2011_10, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    • Handle: RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2011_10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eeri.eu/documents/wp/EERI_RP_2011_10.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James & Thaicharoen, Yunyong, 2003. "Institutional causes, macroeconomic symptoms: volatility, crises and growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 49-123, January.
    2. Eric Strobl, 2011. "The Economic Growth Impact of Hurricanes: Evidence from U.S. Coastal Counties," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 575-589, May.
    3. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-279, April.
    4. Alberto Alesina & Reza Baqir & William Easterly, 1999. "Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1243-1284.
    5. Toya, Hideki & Skidmore, Mark, 2007. "Economic development and the impacts of natural disasters," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 20-25, January.
    6. Johnson, Simon & Boone, Peter & Breach, Alasdair & Friedman, Eric, 2000. "Corporate governance in the Asian financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 141-186.
    7. Monica Escaleras & Nejat Anbarci & Charles Register, 2007. "Public sector corruption and major earthquakes: A potentially deadly interaction," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 209-230, July.
    8. Oguzhan C. Dincer, 2011. "Ethnic Diversity And Trust," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(2), pages 284-293, April.
    9. Matthew E. Kahn, 2005. "The Death Toll from Natural Disasters: The Role of Income, Geography, and Institutions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 271-284, May.
    10. Montalvo, Jose G. & Reynal-Querol, Marta, 2005. "Ethnic diversity and economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 293-323, April.
    11. Anbarci, Nejat & Escaleras, Monica & Register, Charles A., 2005. "Earthquake fatalities: the interaction of nature and political economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1907-1933, September.
    12. World Bank, 2010. "World Development Indicators 2010," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4373.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Ethnic heterogeneity and natural disasters
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-09-26 19:25:00

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Lazzaroni, Sara & van Bergeijk, Peter A.G., 2014. "Natural disasters' impact, factors of resilience and development: A meta-analysis of the macroeconomic literature," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 333-346.
    2. Eiji Yamamura, 2012. "Death tolls from natural disasters: Influence of interactions among fiscal decentralization, institutions and economic development," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2012_08, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    3. Peter A. G. van Bergeijk & Sara Lazzaroni, 2015. "Macroeconomics of Natural Disasters: Strengths and Weaknesses of Meta‐Analysis Versus Review of Literature," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(6), pages 1050-1072, June.
    4. Li, C. & van Bergeijk, P.A.G., 2016. "Do natural disasters stimulate international trade?," ISS Working Papers - General Series 622, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    5. Robert G. Blanton & Dursun Peksen, 2017. "Dying for Globalization? The Impact of Economic Globalization on Industrial Accidents," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1487-1502, November.

    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. Eiji Yamamura, 2012. "The Death Toll from Natural Disasters: The Role of Income, Geography and Institutions: Comment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 1545-1554.
    2. Eiji Yamamura, 2013. "Public sector corruption and the probability of technological disasters," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 233-255, August.
    3. Yamamura, Eiji, 2011. "The changing effect of legal origin on death tolls in natural disasters from 1960 to 2008," MPRA Paper 33112, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Eiji Yamamura, 2014. "Impact of natural disaster on public sector corruption," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 385-405, December.
    5. Eiji Yamamura, 2013. "Institution and decomposition of natural disaster impact on growth," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(6), pages 720-738, October.
    6. Eiji Yamamura, 2012. "Death tolls from natural disasters: Influence of interactions among fiscal decentralization, institutions and economic development," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2012_08, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    7. Eiji Yamamura, 2015. "The Impact of Natural Disasters on Income Inequality: Analysis using Panel Data during the Period 1970 to 2004," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 359-374, September.
    8. Yamamura, Eiji, 2011. "Ethnic heterogeneity and the probability of technological disasters," MPRA Paper 31603, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Yamamura, Eiji, 2013. "Impact of natural disasters on income inequality: Analysis using panel data during the period 1965 to 2004," MPRA Paper 45623, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. van Bergeijk, P.A.G. & Lazzaroni, S., 2013. "Macroeconomics of natural disasters," ISS Working Papers - General Series 50075, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    11. Emmanuel Apergis & Nicholas Apergis, 2021. "The impact of COVID-19 on economic growth: evidence from a Bayesian Panel Vector Autoregressive (BPVAR) model," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(58), pages 6739-6751, December.
    12. Lazzaroni, Sara & van Bergeijk, Peter A.G., 2014. "Natural disasters' impact, factors of resilience and development: A meta-analysis of the macroeconomic literature," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 333-346.
    13. Yamamura, Eiji, 2012. "Death tolls from natural disasters: Influence of interactions between fiscal decentralization, institution, and economic development," MPRA Paper 36987, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Samuel Fankhauser & Thomas K.J. McDermott, 2013. "Understanding the adaptation deficit: why are poor countries more vulnerable to climate events than rich countries?," GRI Working Papers 134, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    15. Eiji Yamamura & Inyong Shin, 2013. "Decomposition of Ethnic Heterogeneity on Growth," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 55(1), pages 59-75, March.
    16. Yamamura, Eiji, 2011. "How does corruption influence perceptions of the risk of nuclear accidents?: cross-country analysis after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan," MPRA Paper 31708, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Monica Escaleras & Charles Register, 2012. "Fiscal decentralization and natural hazard risks," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 165-183, April.
    18. Eduardo Cavallo & Ilan Noy, 2009. "The Economics of Natural Disasters - A Survey," Working Papers 200919, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    19. Padli, Jaharudin & Habibullah, Muzafar & Abdul Hamid, Baharom & Musa, Haslina, 2019. "Mitigating Fatalities and Damages Due to Natural Disasters: Do Human Development and Corruption Matters?," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 53(2), pages 153-164.
    20. Rahman, Muhammad Habibur & Anbarci, Nejat & Ulubaşoğlu, Mehmet A., 2022. "“Storm autocracies”: Islands as natural experiments," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Deaths; Natural disaster; Ethnic fractionalization; Ethic polarization; Legal origin; Institution.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Economic Logic blog

    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:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2011_10. 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: Julia van Hove (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eeriibe.html .

    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.