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.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the period 2006-2012, the Langkloof area, situated in the Eden District Municipality, suffered severely from environmental shocks and social stress including drought, flooding, hail, wildfire, heatwaves and reduced labour demand. These events negatively impacted many farmers and their livelihoods. In response to these external shocks and stressors, large-, medium- and small-scale farmers adopted numerous coping and adaptive strategies. This study performed a comprehensive livelihoods analysis of large-, medium- and small-scale farmers in the Langkloof area, using the widely recognized sustainable livelihoods framework developed by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, with a particular focus on coping and adaptive strategies against severe environmental shock and social stress. Variables used in the analysis were the vulnerability context in which farmers pursue a livelihood; livelihood assets (social, human, financial, natural and physical); the policies, institutions and processes in the external environment that influence the degree of ownership and access to assets; livelihood strategies pursued; and the various livelihood outcomes ultimately produced. The analysis of coping and adaptive strategies employed by farmers during these periods formed an integral part of this study. Sixteen livelihood asset indicators were identified to determine the total assets (human, social, physical, financial and natural) of the farmers. After scaling the indicators, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to assign weights to each indicator and to subsequently calculate the total assets of each household. Regarding the coping and adaptive strategies employed by farmers against environmental shock and social stress, the average number of strategies was calculated for each household. Spearman’s rank correlations were calculated for total assets achieved (capacity) and the number of strategies employed against environmental shock and social stress. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Langkloofgedied, geleë in die Eden Distriksmunisipalitiet, is gedurende die tydperk 2006-2012 geweldig geteister deur omgewings- en sosiale gebeure, wat droogte, vloede, hael, veldbrande, hittegolwe en ʼn gevolglike verlaagde arbeidsaanvraag sluit. Hierdie rampe het verreikende nadelige gevolge op boere se lewensbestaan gehad. Terwyl hulle lewensbestaan tot die uiterste uitgedaag is, is verskeie hanterings- en aanpassingstrategieë teen omgewingskok en sosiale stres geïmplementeer. Met die gebruik van die Verenigde Koninkryk se Departement van Internasionale Ontwikkeling se volhoubare lewensbestaansraamwerk is ʼn gedetailleerde en alomvattende analise van groot, medium- en kleinskaalboere in die Langkloof se lewensbestaan gedoen, met ʼn sterk skem op hul hanterings- en aanpassingstrategieë teen omgewingskok en sosiale stress. Die analise veranderlikes het die kwesbaarsheidskonteks waarin boere hul lewensbestaan aanpak; hul verskeie bates (menslik, sosiaal, finansieel, fisies en natuurlik); die beleide, instansies en prosesse in die eksterne omgewing wat toegang tot en eienaarskap van bates reguleer; hul lewensbestaanstrategieë; en die lewensbestaansuitkomste wat bereik word, behels. Die analise van die boere se hanterings- en aanpassingstrategieë geïmplementeer teen omgewingskok en sosiale stres gedurende hierdie tydperk was ʼn integrale rol van hierdie studie. Sestien aanwysers is geïdentifiseer om die totale lewensbestaansbates (menslik, sosiaal, fisies, finansieel en natuurlik) van die boere te bepaal. Nadat die aanwysers geskaal is, is ‘n Hoofkomponentanalise (PCA) uitgevoer om gewigte aan elke aanwyser toe te ken vir die berekening van totale bates van huishoudings. Die hanterings- en aanpassingstrategieë ingestel deur boere teen omgewingskok en sosiale stres, is die gemiddelde aantal strategieë per huishouding. Spearman se rangorde korrelasies is bereken vir die totale bates (kapasiteit) en die getal strategieë geïmplementeer teen omgewingskok en sosiale stres.

Submitted by Felipe Garcia (felipe.garcia.rs@gmail.com) on 2013-06-17T19:31:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Doutorado Felipe Garcia - Versão Final.pdf: 2832465 bytes, checksum: 1b420a2d381d534eb81e82c8a092fe26 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2013-06-17T19:45:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Doutorado Felipe Garcia - Versão Final.pdf: 2832465 bytes, checksum: 1b420a2d381d534eb81e82c8a092fe26 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-17T19:48:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Doutorado Felipe Garcia - Versão Final.pdf: 2832465 bytes, checksum: 1b420a2d381d534eb81e82c8a092fe26 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-07 / This thesis consists of three essays, one being on economic development and the two others on economic growth. The first essay is an investigation into how access to electricity by households affects time allocation of children and teenagers from rural Brazil in what regards the choice to attend school or to engage in the labor market. To establish a causal relationship between the availability of electricity and time allocation, we use the criteria of priority works from Luz Para Todos program as a source of exogenous variation in access to electricity of households located in rural Brazil. We apply Regression Discontinuity Design and Difference in Difference estimator with endogenous variables. The results from the latter methodology indicate that the presence of electricity increases the likelihood that children and adolescents are enrolled in school and are not delayed relative to the grade they should be attending at their age. Also, the probability of a child being literate and not being working increases with the presence of electricity. One of the possible channels that could explain these results is the increased participation of mothers in the labor market. However, one cannot discard the hypothesis that the observed results are justified by the increased access to electricity by the schools, making them better and more attractive to students and by the receipt of Bolsa Familia program which is conditional on school attendence by children and teenagers. The second study aims to contribute to the literature on institutions and economic growth through the investigation of how the 1959 socialist revolution in Cuba have affected the trajectory of per capita income in that country. To do so, we apply the synthetic control method to obtain the counterfactual path of income per capita in the absence of such revolution. The results show that the trajectory of the annual GDP per capita of Cuba between 1959 to 1980 was lower than it would have been if the socialist regime had not been implemented. This result is robust to different placebo tests deployed and also to the use of different series of GDP per capita. Alternative hypotheses that could explain the lower path of GDP per capita are discussed based on the existing literature and data. The discussion suggests that institutional change was indeed the cause of the observed negative effect on the Cuban economy during the period of analysis. Finally, the third article investigates the economic cost of a natural disaster in Brazil. The paper looks at the excessive rains that happened in the state of Santa Catarina in November and December 2008. This study contributes with some new evidence to the iv recent literature on natural disasters. To our knowledge, there are no studies in Brazil that empirically measure the impact that a natural disaster has entailed on an affected region. This study is structured in two parts. The first uses synthetic control to measure the impact of rainfall on the industrial production of Santa Catarina. For that, we propose a small accommodation method for treating the effects of possible flooding rains in other states. In the second part, we use the method of difference in difference to measure the impact of the rains on the GDP per capita of the cities. The results show that for a period of two years after the end of 2008, the impact of the rains caused a lower monthly industrial production of 2.0% in Santa Catarina. For municipalities, the estimated effect of the disaster on GDP per capita was around -7.0% in 2008 and -5.0% in 2009. There was not significant effect in 2010. / Esta tese é composta por três ensaios, um na linha de desenvolvimento econômico e dois na linha de crescimento. O primeiro deles trata de uma investigação sobre o papel do acesso à energia elétrica a nível domiciliar na alocação do tempo das crianças e adolescentes do Brasil rural entre frequentar a escola e participar do mercado de trabalho. Para o estabelecimento da relação causal entre energia elétrica e a alocação de tempo se utilizam os critérios de prioridade de obras do programa Luz Para Todos como fonte de variação exógena no acesso à energia elétrica dos domicílios localizados na zona rural do Brasil. Aplicam-se os métodos de Regressão Descontínua e Diferenças em Diferenças com Variáveis Instrumentais. Os resultados obtidos da segunda metodologia apontam que a presença de energia elétrica aumenta a probabilidade das crianças e adolescentes estarem matriculadas na escola, não estarem atrasadas em relação à série que deveriam estar dada sua idade, serem alfabetizadas e não estarem trabalhando. Entre os possíveis canais capazes de explicar estes resultados está a maior participação das mães no mercado de trabalho. Entretanto, não se pode descartar a hipótese de que os resultados observados sejam justificados pelo aumento do aceso à energia elétrica a nível escolar, o que pode tornar as escolas melhores e mais atrativas, ou consequência do aumento do recebimento do programa Bolsa Família que exige frequência escolar das crianças e adolescentes. Já o segundo ensaio objetiva colaborar à literatura de instituições e crescimento econômico através da investigação do impacto da mudança institucional ocorrida em Cuba após a revolução socialista de 1959 sobre a trajetória da renda per capita do país. Para tanto, aplica-se o método de controle sintético para a obtenção do contrafactual da trajetória da renda per capita na ausência da revolução. Os resultados apontam que a trajetória do PIB per capita anual de Cuba entre 1959 a 1980 foi inferior ao que teria sido caso não tivesse sido implantado o regime socialista. Este resultado é robusto aos diferentes testes de placebo implantados e ao uso de distintas séries do PIB per capita de Cuba. Hipóteses alternativas à mudança institucional, mas também capazes de explicar a trajetória inferior do PIB per capita, são discutidas com base na literatura e na descrição de dados. A discussão sugere que foi de fato a mudança institucional a causa do efeito negativo observado sobre a economia cubana durante o período de análise. Por fim, o terceiro estudo investiga o custo econômico de um desastre natural ocorrido no Brasil em 2008, a saber, o excesso de chuvas em Santa Catarina entre os meses de novembro e dezembro daquele ano. Este artigo colabora com mais uma evidência para a recente literatura de desastres naturais. No Brasil não há nenhum trabalho, sob nosso conhecimento, medindo empiricamente o impacto que um desastre natural tenha acarretado a uma região atingida. Este estudo está estruturado em duas partes. Na primeira se utiliza o controle sintético para medir o impacto das chuvas na produção industrial de Santa Catarina. Propõe-se uma pequena acomodação do método para tratar o possível transbordamento dos efeitos das chuvas nos demais estados. Já na segunda parte, utiliza-se o método de diferenças em diferenças para medir o impacto das chuvas no PIB per capita das cidades mais atingidas. Os resultados apontam que para um período de dois anos após o final de 2008, o desastre causou uma produção industrial mensal 2.0% menor do que seria caso as chuvas não tivessem ocorrido. Por municípios, o efeito estimado do desastre sobre o PIB per capita se situou ao redor de -7,0% em 2008 e -5,0% em 2009. Em 2010 não há evidências de efeito.