Premium
The influence of local development on the impact of natural disasters in Northeast Brazil: The case of droughts and floods in the state of Ceará
Author(s) -
De Oliveira Victor Hugo,
Santos de França João Mário,
Martins Francisco Mário Viana
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
papers in regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1435-5957
pISSN - 1056-8190
DOI - 10.1111/pirs.12519
Subject(s) - natural disaster , per capita , revenue , geography , population , business , agricultural economics , economics , demography , meteorology , accounting , sociology
Using data from the Damage Assessment Reports from the Civil Defence, the current study investigates the relationship between the damage caused by natural disasters and local development at the municipality level in Ceará state, Brazil. The results show that a better urban and water supply infrastructure, a lower population density, and a higher proportion of own revenues relative to total revenues are associated with smaller disaster damage. However, economic development in terms of GDP per capita exhibits a convex relationship with the impact of natural disasters across municipalities, reflecting the potential decreasing returns of preventive investments due to the highly hazardous environment that involves municipalities.