Thesis advisor: S Anukriti / Thesis advisor: Robert Murphy / It is widely believed that natural disasters increase human trafficking from the affected region or country; however, credible analyses of the causal relationship are lacking. This paper estimates the causal effect of natural disaster occurrence on economic factors and the probability of human trafficking. I find that there is a significant, positive effect of disasters—as measured by an indicator for occurrence as well as disaster intensity—on human trafficking. Moreover, disasters negatively impact economic outcomes, suggesting a potential mechanism through which disasters indirectly affect trafficking. These findings are policy-relevant for anti-human trafficking and disaster relief organizations as they provide empirical evidence for a previously hypothesized relationship and may help prioritize the underemphasized rise in trafficking during times of inevitable chaos. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Arts and Sciences Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:37:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Viviane Cristina Torlai.pdf: 989422 bytes, checksum: c48a7831a806b249184c91debe035aa8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-22 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Natural disasters cause disruption in the lives of those involved, leaving the suddenly bereaved, there are both material and psychological losses to the population. Affect patterns of community and their network of psychosocial support, placing at risk the ability of individual and collective coping. This study aimed to examine the experience of mourning for people who have suffered losses from disasters, specifically floods in the city of Blumenau, SC, in December 2008. Was held in the city of Blumenau, in Santa Catarina, housing the participants. Five people participated in this survey, over 21 years, who attended the calamity of 2008 and currently reside in temporary housing or receive rental income and presenting award interdiction of residence, making it impossible to return to her family. A semistructured interview was conducted with minimal pre-structuring from a semi-structured. Through content analysis, the information was discussed with the mourning process characterized by the experience of traumatic events. In the narrative of the participants were able to identify the impact on the disaster and the fall in world presumed because the unpredictability of life, forecasts of future control of events and vulnerability, leading to loss of sense of security and protection. The disaster led to a succession of losses, since the material loss to the loss of the psychological identity of individuals and the community. It was observed that mourning for disasters is a continuous process of development of losses that requires the mourner's internal and external resources to cope with the traumatic situation. The coping resources found to support the traumas and losses was social support, faith and religion. Complete this study is to pave the way for new thoughts and questions about the losses resulting from disaster, trying to broaden the look at the quality of care for survivors, developing activities that promote the development of the mourning process by disasters / Os desastres naturais provocam uma ruptura na vida das pessoas envolvidas, deixando-as subitamente enlutadas; há perdas tanto materiais quanto psíquicas para a população. Eles afetam padrões da comunidade e suas redes de apoio psicossocial, colocando em risco a capacidade de enfrentamento individual e coletivo. Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar a vivência do luto de pessoas que passaram por perdas decorrentes de desastres, especificamente, as inundações na cidade de Blumenau, SC, em dezembro de 2008. Foi realizada no Município de Blumenau, em Santa Catarina, na moradia dos participantes. Participaram desta pesquisa cinco pessoas, maiores de 21 anos, que estiveram presentes na calamidade de 2008 e atualmente residem em moradia provisória ou recebem a renda aluguel e que apresentam laudo de interdição de residência, impossibilitando a família de retornar a ela. Foi realizada uma entrevista semidirigida com pré-estruturação mínima a partir de um roteiro semi-estruturado. Por meio da análise de conteúdo as informações foram discutidas e o processo de luto caracterizado a partir da vivência de evento traumático. Na narrativa dos participantes foi possível identificar o impacto sofrido pelo desastre, a quebra do mundo presumido, a imprevisibilidade da vida, as previsões de futuro, o controle dos acontecimentos e a vulnerabilidade, levando a perda do senso de segurança e proteção. O desastre provocou uma sucessão de perdas, desde as perdas materiais até a perda da identidade psicológica dos indivíduos e da comunidade. Observou-se que luto por desastres é um processo contínuo de elaboração de perdas que exige do enlutado recursos internos e externos para enfrentar a situação traumática. Os recursos de enfrentamento encontrados para suportar os traumas e perdas foi o apoio social, a fé e a religiosidade. Concluir este estudo é abrir caminho para novas reflexões e questionamentos acerca das perdas decorrentes dos desastres, buscando ampliar o olhar para a qualidade da assistência aos sobreviventes, desenvolvendo ações que propiciam a elaboração do processo de luto por desastres

This dissertation considers the interconnections between trade and transportation. Through various theoretical and empirical analyses, I provide novel evidence of the simultaneity of trade and transportation, of spillover effects across integrated transport markets, and of the influence of the international transport sector on trade policy effectiveness and natural disaster induced trade disruptions. In the first substantive chapter, I develop a model of international trade and transportation. Accounting for the joint-production present in the international container shipping industry, I illustrate that freight rates adjust to differences in the international demands for transport and can result in balanced or imbalanced equilibrium trade in the presence of asymmetric freight rates. The empirical results exhibit the simultaneity of international trade and transportation costs and show that the dependence of transport costs on the trade imbalance can lead to spillover effects across bilateral export and import markets. In the second substantive chapter, I investigate the effects of maritime trade policy on bilateral trade in the presence of trade imbalances. Using the previously developed model, I show that the trade elasticities with respect to carrier costs vary systematically across transport markets, bilateral trade imbalances and differentiated products. Empirically, I estimate the varying effects of an EU environmental policy on U.S.-EU trade and provide strong evidence in support of the theoretical results. In the third substantive chapter, I analyze the dynamics and spatial distribution of the trade effects induced by natural disasters. I develop a spatial gravity model of international trade and apply the model to monthly US port level trade data. Empirically, I estimate the dynamic evolution of trade effects caused by Hurricane Katrina differentiating trade disruptions at the local port level. The estimates point to the static and dynamic resilience of international trade. While ports closest to Katrina's epicenter experience significant short-run reductions that can be of permanent nature, international trade handled by nearby ports rises in response to this disaster, both in the short- and in the long-run. Overall, the analysis underlines the significance of local infrastructure networks to reduce the devastation inflicted by natural disasters. This dissertation includes previously unpublished co-authored material.

No description available.

Masteropgave. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Includes bibliographical references. / Cover title. "February 2003." 4/8/03: Also available via Internet.

The increasing impacts of climate change bear new challenges for the international community. The exacerbation of natural disasters in frequency and scope also confronts the national governments with newly arising problems. Disaster-induced displacement isan increasing phenomenon occurring the last years, which particularly vulnerable regions with a high exposure to national hazards are affected by. The present study addresses the inclusion of disaster IDPs in Disaster Risk Reduction frameworks on international and national level and argues that there is a need to recognize disaster-induced displacement as an increasing issue that should explicitly be addressed and included in policy frameworks on both levels. This was addressed through analyzing international and national key strategies in Disaster-Risk-Reduction. A case comparison of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and the yearly recurring floods in Mozambique since 2000 illustrates the implementation of these frameworks in regard to the issue of displacement. Although efforts have been made on both levels to improve the situation of IDPs in the response and recovery phase, it is argued that an inclusion through a community-based approach is needed in all the phases of disaster management to appropriately address the needs of disaster IDPs in the pre-and post-disaster phases.

In the context of still uncertain specific effects of climate change in specific locations, this paper examines whether education significantly increases coping capacity with regard to particular climatic changes, and whether it improves the resilience of people to climate risks in general. Our hypothesis is that investment in universal primary and secondary education around the world is the most effective strategy for preparing to cope with the still uncertain dangers associated with future climate. The empirical evidence presented for a cross-country time series of factors associated with past natural disaster fatalities since 1980 in 125 countries confirms this overriding importance of education in reducing impacts. We also present new projections of populations by age, sex, and level of educational attainment to 2050, thus providing an appropriate tool for anticipating societies' future adaptive capacities based on alternative education scenarios associated with different policies. (authors' abstract)

This dissertation configures winter disasters in Mongolia as a context for examining the "politics of responsibility" in a post-socialist nation. Winter disasters in Mongolia, called zud, are complex events in which unfavorable environmental, climatic, and weather conditions—such as sparse pasture, deep snow, ice, and extreme cold—combine to produce high winter livestock mortality, thus threatening rural livelihoods. Observed and projected climate change raises concerns that zud will increase in frequency and severity. Moreover, social and economic transitions in Mongolia since the end of Socialism have left herders highly exposed to shocks. A zud in the winter of 2009-2010 was especially alarming, being the biggest disaster since 1944, killing almost one quarter of Mongolia's livestock. This event was a testament not only to the destructive power of combined meteorological and environmental factors, but also to persistent vulnerability in rural Mongolia. Focusing on the politics of responsibility surrounding disasters such as zud, this dissertation examines popular discourses of herders as "lazy" and "irresponsible." These discourses arise from "neoliberal" ideologies in post-socialist Mongolia, and from certain values and institutions tied to Mongolia's socialist past. Some foreigners and urban Mongolians speculate that Socialism made herders dependent on state assistance, and now they just need to learn how to take care of themselves. Such assumptions have real impacts, as they influence development program design and policy. Socialism has indeed influenced the ways that Mongolians perceive risk and allocate responsibility in the face of zud. However, the effect has not been to make herders "lazy" and apathetic in the face of increasing risk, but rather the opposite. Socialism fostered strong values concerning work ethic, discipline, and agency. The research incorporated participant observation with herders at a site in the Gobi Desert and comparative research across five sites in Mongolia to record herders' complex strategies for managing risk. Interviews and archival research were used to examine Mongolians' changing attitudes toward risk.

Naturally-occurring and technology-based hazards affect public health and safety to varying degrees. Naturally-occurring hazards include weather-related events and infectious disease epidemics/pandemics. Examples of technology-based hazards include hazardous materials incidents and electrical power outages. Due to limited resources, emergency planners have to prioritize hazards that may affect local jurisdictions. The purpose of the reported study was to construct a hierarchy of public safety hazards at the county and district levels to aid emergency planners. Public safety representatives from Indiana's District 6 region completed a survey, based on the Oregon Emergency Management Hazard Analysis Methodology, which assigns numerical scores to various hazard categories based on history, vulnerability, maximum potential, and probability of occurrence within a given jurisdiction. Participants also completed an open-ended question, in narrative form, to describe any additional hazards that may affect their jurisdiction. Significant differences were found in point totals for various hazards (p = .000). Significant differences were found among public safety disciplines in rating the infectious disease hazard (p = .02). No significant differences were found in point totals between naturally-occurring and technology-based hazards (p = .86). Overall, a high level of agreement between disciplines on rating hazards, and significant differences between hazard categories suggests that hazard category prioritization is warranted. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management