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Weathering the Storm: Measuring Household Willingness‐to‐Pay for Risk‐Reduction in Post‐Katrina New Orleans
Author(s) -
Landry Craig E.,
Hindsley Paul,
Bin Okmyung,
Kruse Jamie B.,
Whitehead John C.,
Wilson Ken
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.4284/0038-4038-77.4.991
Subject(s) - metropolitan area , hurricane katrina , storm , willingness to pay , investment (military) , preference , town hall , business , sample (material) , natural disaster , geography , economics , political science , public administration , local government , meteorology , politics , archaeology , law , microeconomics , chemistry , chromatography
The city of New Orleans suffered extensive damage as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Rebuilding involves decisions on investment in protective measures. An exhaustive list of protective measures has been studied in planning documents, with public comment solicited in town hall meetings. In this study we employ a different approach to examine public sentiment toward the selection and investment in protective measures. Our study uses a stated preference choice experiment with a stratified sample to investigate individuals' willingness‐to‐pay for rebuilding New Orleans's man‐made storm defenses, restoring natural storm protection, and improving evacuation options through a modernized transportation system. We target residents of the New Orleans metropolitan area as well as other U.S. citizens. Our results indicate that individuals are willing to pay for increased storm protection for New Orleans, but values differ among residents of the New Orleans metropolitan area and other U.S. citizens.