In my dissertation, I investigate the relationship between household consumption expenditures and transitory income shocks. In the first two essays, I pay particular attention to household expenditures in the aftermath of natural disasters, which are becoming more frequent and costly in the U.S. since 1980. Additionally, I study specialty farm producers' risk attitudes after an income shock due to natural disasters. Although the permanent income hypothesis predicts that households smooth consumption over their lifetimes, credit-constrained households may find consumption smoothing impractical. This dissertation brings forth evidence regarding heterogeneity in the effect of income shocks on household expenditures. First, I find that floods and hurricanes affect food-at-home (FAH) spending in different ways. The average 15-day decrease in FAH spending is about $2 in the 90 days after a flood and about $7 in the 30 days after a hurricane. In other words, floods have a prolonged effect and hurricanes have an immediate effect. I find that floods and hurricanes remain a threat to the FAH expenditures of vulnerable households, for instance, low-income households and households in coastal states. Second, Indiana specialty farm households reduce their monthly expenses of food and miscellaneous categories by about $119 and $280, respectively, after an income loss of 20%-32%. I also find that Indiana specialty producers are less willing to take financial risk after an income loss experience, i.e., they have a decreasing absolute risk aversion. Finally, in the third essay, I show that Australian households exhibit loss aversion in consumption expenditures which also means that they behave asymmetrically in their consumption response to income shocks. However, it is only working-age younger households that show asymmetric consumption behavior as opposed to the symmetric behavior of retirement-age households. The main message of these various findings is clear: after an income shock, the magnitude of change in consumption expenditures and the saliency of certain expenditure categories for adjustment are context- and population-dependent. Hence, income support policies and post-disaster relief programs may benefit from a better understanding of the consumption behavior of beneficiary population, to achieve maximum impact through better targeting.

La quebrada El Pedregal viene siendo afectada por la generación de flujo de escombros o huaicos que ocasionan pérdida de vida, daños a la infraestructura, a la salud y medioambientales. En 1987 un huaico provocó aproximadamente 100 fallecidos y 1000 viviendas fueron destruidas (Abad, 2009). Los huaicos son originados por las fuertes y/o constantes precipitaciones, el Fenómeno del Niño y condiciones naturales desfavorables de pendiente, geología, drenaje y forma de la subcuenca. Adicionalmente, el establecimiento de población en zonas de riesgo, el déficit de las medidas de prevención y mitigación e inadecuada planificación ante la ocurrencia de huaicos reflejan la vulnerabilidad existente, lo que generan el problema principal que es el alto riesgo que hay en la quebrada El Pedregal por ocurrencia de huaicos. Ante esta problemática, el objetivo general de la presente tesis es formular un plan de gestión integral de riesgo de desastre conformado por medidas de corrección y prevención tanto estructurales como no estructurales, para contribuir a la reducción de daños ocasionados por los huaicos. Para lo cual, se estudió el marco teórico, se recolectó y/o procesó información hidrológica, topográfica, geológica, geomorfológica, geotécnica, climatológica, e información de la ocurrencia de huaicos extraordinarios para el estudio básico de la quebrada. Se analizó la eficacia de medidas estructurales existentes como diques de mampostearía, dique de concreto ciclópeo y barreras dinámicas; y medidas no estructurales como la delimitación de la faja marginal y el sistema de alerta temprana piloto, siendo estas acciones aisladas no conformantes de un plan. Puesto que, no es posible actuar sobre el peligro natural se actúa sobre la vulnerabilidad, revirtiendo o mitigando las causas que la genera y de esta manera reducir el alto riesgo de la zona. En base a este diagnóstico se formuló y evaluó alternativas de medidas de corrección y prevención, para seleccionar y proponer las más adecuadas que conformen el plan. Es así como se realizó un análisis comparativo de cuatro medidas estructurales como la barrera dinámica, el dique de mampostería, el dique de concreto ciclópeo y la presa SABO, como alternativas de solución para revertir el déficit de las medidas de prevención y mitigación. Se seleccionó la barrera dinámica como la estructura más eficiente debido a sus características de funcionamiento, construcción, su capacidad de retención y su menor costo por cada m³ de volumen de material de huaico retenido. Asimismo , se estimó el volumen de producción y retención para un futuro huaico y comprobado el predimensionamiento y la estabilidad de las barreras en el software DEBFLOW, se propone como medida estructural de prevención la implementación de dos nuevas barreras dinámicas Nº05 y Nº06. Además se propone como otra medida estructural de prevención la incorporación de sensores de alerta temprana en la barrera dinámica N°03 y N°06. Sobre las medidas de prevención no estructurales para revertir la inadecuada planificación ante la ocurrencia de huaicos se proponen las capacitaciones periódicas de resiliencia, de seguridad y salud, con la intención de preparar a la población para una respuesta más efectiva ante eventos de huaicos y el fortalecimiento de la institucionalidad local y cofinanciamiento para el plan. Respecto a la ocupación del territorio por parte de la población para establecer sus viviendas en zonas de riesgo, se propone como medida no estructural de corrección el desarrollo de charlas de sensibilización y concientización sobre la preservación y cuidado de la faja marginal. Estas medidas se establecieron en el plan de gestión integral que, a su vez, está estructurado por los subplanes de acciones de prevención, de emergencia, de recuperación y rehabilitación y de monitoreo. Esta propuesta engloba la gestión integral y la gestión de riesgo de desastres, que busca la integración, articulación y coordinación de las acciones, recursos y participantes con la finalidad de contribuir a la reducción del riesgo, esperando reducir las pérdidas de vidas (de 100 a 0 fallecidos), daños a la infraestructura (de 1000 a 0 viviendas dañadas) y entre otros daños sociales, económicos y ambientales. La validación para determinar la viabilidad y fiabilidad para la implementación del Plan de Gestión Integral se desarrolló a través del método de juicio de expertos. Asimismo, se realizó una evaluación económica para verificar la viabilidad y factibilidad de la inversión del Plan de Gestión Integral. Y finalmente se realiza la validación del contenido del plan mediante el uso de herramientas modernas de ingeniería que incluyen, entre otras, las experiencias de entidades especialistas que cuentan con leyes, reglamentos, guías técnicas y planes estratégicos a nivel macro. / El Pedregal Creek has been affected by the generation of debris flow that causes loss of life, damage to infrastructure, health and environment. In 1987, one of the most catastrophic landslide in the area appeared, with approximately 100 deaths and 1000 destroyed homes (Abad, 2009). Debris flow are caused by heavy and/or constant rainfall, the El Niño phenomenon and unfavorable natural conditions of slope, geology, drainage and shape of the sub-basin. In addition, the establishment of settlements in risk areas, the deficit of adequate prevention and mitigation measures and uncoordinated and uncertain planning for the occurrence of debris flow, reflect the existing vulnerability, which generates the main problem that is the high risk that exist in El Pedregal Creek. Faced with this problem, the general objective of this thesis is to formulate an integral management plan for disaster risk, made up of structural and non-structural correction and prevention measures, in order to contribute to the reduction of damages caused by debris flow. For this reason, the theoretical framework was studied, hydrological, topographical, geological, geomorphological, geotechnical and climatological information was collected and/or process, as well as a historical series of the occurrence of extraordinary floods the basic study of the stream. The effectiveness of existing structural measures such as masonry dikes, cyclopean concrete dikes and dynamic barriers was analyzed; and non-structural measures such as the delimitation of the marginal strip and the pilot early warning system, being these isolated actions not part of a plan. Since it is not possible to act on the natural danger, vulnerability will be carried out, reversing or mitigating the causes that generate it and in this way efforts will be made to reduce the high risk of the area. On the basis of this diagnosis, alternatives to correction and prevention measures were formulated and evaluated, to select and propose the most appropriate ones to make up the plan. This is how a comparative analysis of four structural measures was carried out, the dynamic barrier, the masonry dyke, the cyclopean concrete dyke and Sabo dam, as solution alternatives to revert the deficit of prevention and mitigation measures. The dynamic barrier was selected as the most efficient structure due to its performance characteristics, construction, its retention capacity and its lower cost per m³ of volume of retained leached material. Likewise, the production and retention volume was estimated for a future shaft and the pre-dimensioning and stability of the barriers in the DEBFLOW software was verified. The implementation of two new dynamic barriers, No. 05 and No. 06, was proposed as a structural prevention measure. In addition, it is proposed as another structural prevention measure the incorporation of early warning sensors in the dynamic barrier N°03 and N°06. Regarding the non-structural prevention measures to reverse the inadequate planning for the occurrence of debris flow, periodic training on resilience, safety and health is proposed, with the intention of preparing the population for a more effective response to debris flow events and the strengthening of local institutions and co-financing for the plan. Regarding the occupation of the territory by the population to establish their homes in risk areas, it is proposed as a non-structural measure of correction the development of talks of sensitization and awareness about the preservation and care of the marginal strip. These measures were established in the integral management plan which, in turn, is structured by the sub-plans of prevention, emergency, recovery and rehabilitation actions and monitoring. This proposal encompasses integrated management and disaster risk management, which seeks the integration, articulation and coordination of actions, resources and participants in order to contribute to risk reduction, hoping to reduce loss of life (from 100 to 0 deaths), damage to infrastructure (from 1000 to 0 damaged homes) and among other social, economic and environmental damage. The validation to determine the viability and reliability for the implementation of the Integral Management Plan was developed through the expert judgment method. Likewise, an economic evaluation was carried out to verify the viability and feasibility of the investment of the Integral Management Plan. And finally, the validation of the content of the plan is carried out through the use of modern engineering tools that include, among others, the experiences of specialized entities that have laws, regulations, technical guides and strategic plans at the macro level. / Tesis

This dissertation is about economic resilience of local governments to natural disasters. Specifically, the dissertation investigates resilience on regional level. Moreover, the dissertation also investigates growth in the green job sector in local governments. The findings indicate that local governments working with each other helps green job creation. In addition, the dissertation finds that green jobs, following disasters, experience three percent growth. This dissertation is important because it investigates the relationship between climate- related disasters and green jobs, which is an area that is under-investigated.

This dissertation investigates the effects of natural disasters and political institutions on municipalities' climate change policies. Although most theoretical frameworks on policy adoption highlight the roles of extreme events as exogenous factors influencing policy change, most studies tend to focus on the effects of extreme events on policy change at the national level. Additionally, the existing theoretical frameworks explaining local policy adoption and public service provision do not pay attention to the roles of extreme events in local governments' policy choices. To fill those gaps, this dissertation explores the roles of natural disasters and political institutions on municipal governments' climate change policies. It does this by applying the theory of focusing events to local climate mitigation and adaptation actions. Based on the policy change framework, the political market model, and the institutional collective action frameworks, this dissertation develops and tests hypotheses to examine the effects of natural disasters and political institutions on municipalities' climate mitigation and adaptation policies. The dissertation uses 2010 National League of Cities (NLC) sustainability surveys and the 2010 International City/County Management Association (ICMA) sustainability survey to test the hypotheses. Analytical results show that floods and droughts influence local climate change policies and suggest that local governments can take advantage of extreme events when initiating a policy change. The results also suggest that political institutions can shape the effects of natural disasters on municipalities' climate mitigation and adaptation actions.

Current research shows that water-related disasters are the most common natural disaster worldwide and these disasters are increasing in numbers. Water-related disasters cause negative consequences through damage to infrastructure and human health.  This thesis aims to provide an overview of the water-related disasters, floods, and landslides in Sweden by displaying the spatial distribution. Furthermore, the purpose is to analyze the consequences of occurred water-related disasters. By answering the following research questions:  How has landslides and floods been spatially distributed over time in Sweden?  How severe has the consequences of floods and landslides been in Sweden?  To answer these research questions a data study was conducted in ArcGIS and Excel to analyze the spatial distribution and the consequences of landslides and floods. The result shows that the three counties in Sweden with the highest number of affected areas by floods are: Västerbotten, Västernorrland and Örebro. These counties constitute 36% of the affected areas. These affected areas have occurred periodically with an increase since 1970. A detailed study over the years 2011–2017 showed that most floods in Sweden lead to consequences with a small extent and limited damages.  Furthermore, the counties Västra Götaland, Västernorrland and Värmland had the highest number of occurred landslides. In total, 83.7% of all landslides have occurred within these three counties. This means that the distribution of floods is more evenly distributed between different counties compared to landslides. Within these counties, the areas that have had notable high numbers of landslides are Ångermanälven, Norsälven, Klarälven and the areas nearby Göta älv. Overall, it has been most common that landslides have an extent in the range between 1000–10000 m2 and that an extent over 100000 m2 are rare. / Aktuell forskning visar att vattenrelaterade naturkatastrofer är de vanligaste naturkatastroferna över hela världen samt att dessa ökar i antal. Vattenrelaterade naturkatastrofer orsakar till negativa konsekvenser till följd av skador på infrastruktur och människors hälsa. Denna kandidatuppsats syftar till att ge en översikt av den geografiska utbredningen av inträffade vattenrelaterade naturkatastroferna skred och översvämningar i Sverige. Vidare, är syftet att analysera konsekvenserna av inträffade vattenrelaterade naturkatastrofer, genom att svara på följande frågeställningar:  Hur har skred och översvämningar varit utspridda över tid i Sverige? Hur allvarliga har konsekvenserna av översvämningar och jordskred varit i Sverige? För att besvara dessa frågeställningar utfördes en analys i ArcGIS och Excel för att undersöka den geografiska utbredningen och konsekvenserna av skred och översvämningar. Resultatet visar att de tre län med flest områden som blivit påverkade av översvämningar är: Västerbotten, Västernorrland and Örebro. Dessa län utgör 36% av de drabbade områdena. Antalet påverkade områden av översvämningar har inträffat periodvis med en ökning sedan 1970. En detaljerad analys över åren 2011–2017 visade att de flesta översvämningar i Sverige resulterade i konsekvenser med liten utbredning och små skador.  Vidare, hade Västra Götaland, Västernorrland och Värmlands län högst antal inträffade skred. Totalt har 83.7% av alla skred inträffat inom dessa tre län. Detta innebär att fördelningen av områden påverkade av översvämningar har varit jämnare fördelade mellan olika län jämfört med skred. Inom dessa län är de områden som har haft anmärkningsvärt högt antal skred: Ångermanälven, Norsälven, Klarälven och områdena i närheten av Göta älv. Överlag har det varit vanligast att jordskred har en utbredning mellan 1000–10000 m2 och att en utbredning över 100000 m2 är ovanlig.

Thesis (DPhil (Geography and Environmental Studies))—University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Background The Disaster Management Act (Act 57 of 2002) instructs a paradigm shift from preparedness, response and recovery towards risk reduction. In order to plan for and mitigate risks, all spheres of government must firstly assess their hazards, vulnerabilities, capacity to cope and therefore risks. Studies in this regard, in South Africa, have however only focussed on current risks. Climate Change has now been accepted by leading international studies as a reality. Climate change can impact upon many aspects of life on earth. Studies to quantify the impact of climate change on water resources, biodiversity, agriculture and sustainable development are steadily increasing, but human health seem to have been neglected. Only general predictions, mostly regarding vector-borne disease and injury related to natural disasters are found in literature. Studies in South Africa have only focussed on malaria distribution. Most studies, internationally and the few in South Africa, were based on determining empirical relationships between weather parameters and disease incidence, therefore assessing only the hazard, and not the disaster risk. Methodology This study examines the impact of climate change on human health in the Western Cape, within the context of disaster management. A qualitative approach is followed and includes: · A literature overview examining predicted changes in climate on a global and regional scale, · A discussion on the known relationships and possible impacts climate change might have on human health, · A disaster risk assessment based on the status quo for a case study area, the Cape Winelands District Municipality, · An investigation into the future risks in terms of health, taking into account vulnerabilities and secondary impacts of climate change, resulting in the prioritisation of future risks. · Suggestions towards mitigation within the South African context. Results The secondary impacts of climate change were found to have the larger qualitative impact. The impact of climate change on agriculture, supporting 38% of the population can potentially destroy the livelihoods of the workforce, resulting in poverty-related disease. Other impacts identified were injuries and disease relating to temperature, floods, fire and water quality. Conclusion Risk is a function of hazard, vulnerability and capacity to cope. The impact of an external factor on a ‘spatial system’ should be a function of the impacts on all these factors. Disasters are not increasing because of the increase in the frequency of hazards, but because of the increasing vulnerability to hazards. This study illustrated that the major impacts of the external factor could actually be on the vulnerabilities and the indirect impacts, and not on the hazard itself. Climate change poses a threat to many aspects of the causative links that should be addressed by disaster management, and its impacts should be researched further to determine links and vulnerabilities. This research also illustrates that slow onset disasters hold the potential to destroy just as much as extreme events such as Katrina, Rita or a tsunami. It also reiterates that secondary impacts may not be as obvious, but are certainly not of secondary importance.

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle avec l'Institut d’études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence, École doctorale de Sciences Po, Programme doctoral en sciences de l’information et de la communication / La présente thèse s’intéresse à la couverture de l’information lors de crises, soit des événements brutaux et inattendus, attribuables « à une situation très difficile, voire dangereuse, pour un individu, une organisation, un corps social, un système économique ou un pays » . Elle a pour objectif de définir en quoi les pratiques journalistiques et le contenu des médias diffèrent du quotidien à la situation de crise. L’hypothèse de départ, sur laquelle elle s’appuie, est qu’en situation de crise, les pratiques journalistiques seront affectées par l’émotivité, l’impulsion du moment et la recherche d’exclusivité. S’agissant du contenu, il y aura saturation de certains thèmes liés à la crise, alors que plusieurs sujets abordés quotidiennement seront évacués et que le risque d’erreurs ou d’inexactitudes sera exacerbé. Ce travail doctoral emprunte la voie de la comparaison entre la France et le Québec, deux pays présentant une structure de chaînes télévisées similaire, laquelle permet d’établir des bases de comparaison valables. Pour répondre au questionnement initial, une triple stratégie méthodologique a été adoptée. Cette stratégie inclut d’abord des entretiens semi-directifs sous forme d’histoire de vie professionnelle, réalisés avec différents acteurs de l’information. Suivent les résultats d’une analyse quantitative du contenu des journaux télévisés qui s’appuie sur un corpus composé de reportages présentés lors de trois types de crises survenues en France et au Québec, soit des crises « sociales », des crises « naturelles » et des crises « mixtes ». Ces reportages ont été soumis à une grille d’analyse, issue du projet Television Around the World de George Gerbner, adaptée aux nouvelles télévisées. Enfin, une analyse de contenu des 1 676 décisions issues de la jurisprudence du Conseil de presse du Québec a été effectuée. Cette dernière examine en profondeur les plaintes relatives à des situations de crises déposées au tribunal d'honneur de la presse québécoise et revient sur les griefs invoqués et les décisions rendues. Ces diverses analyses démontrent qu’il existe une complexité relative à la définition et à la compréhension des crises qui pose de nombreux défis aux professionnels de la nouvelle. Néanmoins, ces derniers font régulièrement face à ce type de situations, puisqu’elles occupent une place primordiale au sein de la programmation médiatique. Les répondants que nous avons rencontrés se sont dits préoccupés par la rapidité avec laquelle ils doivent traiter l'information, par le manque d'outils à leur disposition pour le faire lors de crises et par l'accès aux sources d’information, lesquelles peuvent tenter d'influencer ou de fausser leur jugement et ainsi nuire à leur liberté journalistique. Dans les deux pays analysés, la couverture de crise est présentée d’une façon très autocentrée, alors que les éléments qui retiennent principalement l’attention des journalistes sont ceux liés à leur pays d’origine. Néanmoins, le choix des thématiques et l’angle de traitement présentent de grandes similarités d’un pays à l’autre, alors que les journalistes ont tendance à mettre de l’avant les mêmes sujets dans les situations que nous avons observées. Des pratiques très spécifiques, qui se distinguent du quotidien, se manifestent donc lorsque vient le moment d’aborder les crises dans les médias. En identifiant ces façons de faire, la présente thèse jette les bases d’une réflexion essentielle sur la place accordée aux crises en information et révèle un manque d’outils déontologiques essentiels au travail des journalistes ainsi qu’un manque de réflexion et de recul sur la place accordée à certains sujets dans l’actualité. / This thesis focuses on the news coverage during abrupt and unexpected events, due to "a very difficult situation, even dangerous, for an individual, an organization, a social body, an economic system or a country" and aims to determine in what ways journalistic practices and media contents in a crisis situation differ from ordinary daily practices. The assumption on which this thesis rests is that in a crisis situation, journalistic practices will be affected by emotions, the spur of the moment and the search for exclusivity. Regarding content, there will be saturation of certain issues related to the crisis, while many daily topics will be removed and the risk of errors or inaccuracies will be exacerbated. This doctoral work follows the path of a comparison between France and Quebec, as both countries share a language and similar TV channel structure, which allows us to establish valid comparison bases. To answer the question of the research, a triple methodological strategy was adopted and the results of these analyses are presented in subsequent chapters of the thesis. First are presented the results of semi-structured interviews we conducted, in the form of professional life stories, with different actors from the information sector. These are followed by the results of a quantitative content analysis of television news which is based on a corpus formed of reports presented during three types of crises in France and in Quebec: "social" crises, "natural" crises and "mixed" crises. These reports were submitted to the grid analysis from George Gerbner’s project "Television Around the World". Finally, a content analysis of 1,676 decisions from the jurisprudence of the Quebec Press Council was conducted. This analysis offered the opportunity to examine a certain amount of complaints relating to crisis situations, to observe the objections raised in these complaints and to analyze the different trends with respect to the complainants, the respondents and the decisions of the Quebec media self-regulatory body. The complexity of the definition and understanding of crises results from these various analyzes and poses many challenges to the news professionals who regularly face this type of situations, since they play a major role in media programming. In the two countries analyzed, crisis coverage is presented in a very self centric way, while the main elements that attract the attention of journalists are those related to their country of origin. Nevertheless, the choice of themes and the angle of treatment are quite similar from one country to another and journalists tend to focus on the same issues and to put forward the same type of elements in the situations we observed. There are therefore very clear practices that appear when it comes to address crises in the media. By identifying these, this thesis lays the foundations of a critical reflection on the place made to crises in the information world and reveals an insufficient number of ethical tools essential to the work of journalists as well as a lack of reflection and perspective on the emphasis given to some topics in the news.

The aim of this thesis is to explore how livelihoods are recovering in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka through the lens of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the social networks approach—methods of inquiry that have gained considerable impetus in livelihoods research. The study is conducted with reference to two tsunami-affected fisher villages in the Hambantota District, Southern Province. It employs a qualitative ethnographic methodology that examines narratives emerging from households, local officials of government and non-government organizations, office bearers of community-based organizations, local politicians, village leaders, and key informants. Focus is on evaluating how particular roles, activities, and behaviour are given importance by these groups in specific post-tsunami contexts and how these aspects relate to broader conceptualizations of social networks, informal politics, social inequality, and ethnographic research in South Asia. The findings support four major contributions to the literature. First, social networks are significant as an object of study and a method of inquiry in understanding livelihoods post-disaster. Second, paying heed to varied forms of informal politics is critical in post-disaster analyses. Third, the concept of intersectionality can extend and improve upon prevailing approaches to social inequality in disaster recovery. Fourth, ethnographic research is valuable for understanding everyday networks, informal politics, and change in South Asia. Collectively, these findings present a human geography of post-tsunami livelihoods in Sri Lanka, where networks, politics, and inequalities, which form an essential part of everyday livelihoods, have been reproduced in disaster recovery. The thesis constitutes a means of offering expertise in the sphere of development practice, highlighting internal differentiation in access to aid as a key issue that needs to be identified and systematically addressed by policymakers and practitioners.

El carácter aplicado y estratégico del estudio de los Riesgos Naturales justifica el interés de abordar este tema desde el punto de vista global e integrador que caracteriza a la ciencia geográfica. En este campo, la comparación de las políticas desarrolladas en diferentes países, así como en la Unión Europea como ente supranacional, resulta muy valiosa para diseñar estrategias efectivas que puedan aplicarse a la mejora del sistema de gestión de riesgos naturales desarrollado en España. El fin último, el correcto ensamblaje entre las distintas fases de intervención y los organismos implicados, obedece al esfuerzo por comprender y reducir las inadaptaciones entre el ser humano y el medio en el que se inscriben sus actividades, contribuyendo de este modo a minimizar el impacto, tanto económico como social, de las catástrofes naturales. / The applicability and the strategic nature of Natural Risks investigation justify the interest to approach this subject from the global and binding point of view which characterizes Geography science. In this area, the comparison between policies that have been developed in different countries, as well as in the European Union as a higher body, could be extremely valuable in the design of effective strategies that might be applied to improve the Spanish natural risks management system. The final goal is to get the correct correlation between the different intervention phases and the organisms involved, in order to understand and reduce the failures in adaptation between human beings and the environment in which they live and act. This would contribute to minimize the economic as well as social impact of natural disasters.

Nell'ambito dell'economia dei disastri naturali ho elaborato uno studio macroeconomico e due microeconomici. A livello macro ho elaborato una meta-analisi della letteratura empirica sugli effetti dei disastri naturali in termini di costi diretti e indiretti. Ho analizzato gli effetti di caratteristiche del database,tecniche di stima, fattori di resilienza considerati e publication bias. Studi sui costi diretti che includono paesi Africani hanno 65% maggiore probabilità di riportare un risultato negativo e significativo mentre studi sui costi indiretti sembrano soffrire di publication bias. I lavori microeconometrici si focalizzano su due paesi africani. Nel primo analizzo gli effetti di un aumento della variabilità climatica sul consumo di beni alimentari delle famiglie in Uganda nel periodo 2005/06-2009/10. In media un incremento di 1% delle temperature porterebbe a una diminuzione del consumo di alimenti del 3-5% mentre le famiglie sarebbero in grado di contrastare variazioni delle precipitazioni con varie strategie. Nel secondo, con approccio multi-shock analizzo gli effetti di siccità e incremento dei prezzi di acquisto sullo stato nutrizionale di bambini in famiglie residenti in zone rurali del Senegal nel periodo 2009-2011. Singolarmente entrambi gli eventi sembrano avere effetti negativi sul livello nutrizionale. Tuttavia la concomitanza dei due eventi sembra non avere effetto sul peso dei bambini grazie a un positivo effetto reddito. / In this work I deal with the economics of natural disasters conducting one study at the macroeconomic level and two studies at the microeconomic level. In the first I conduct a meta-analysis of the macro literature on the direct and indirect costs of natural disasters. I investigate the effects of empirical design, estimation technique, resilience factors included and publication bias. I find that direct costs studies have 65% probability to report negative and significant results if they include African countries while indirect costs studies show publication bias. Second, I conduct a microeconometric analysis of the effects of weather variability on households food consumption in Uganda in the period 2005/06-2009/10. I show that on average 1% increase in maximum temperatures would reduce food consumption by 4-5% while precipitation amount and distribution would not affect household food consumption thanks to coping strategies. Finally I consider the effects of droughts and increasing purchasing prices on weight-for-age of children in rural households in Senegal using a multishock approach and a unique dataset (2009-2011). Results of drought(increase in prices) econometric analyis show deterioration in child weight-for-age. However, concomitance of drought and increasing prices would leave child weight-for-age unaffected thanks to positive income effects.