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This dissertation consists of three chapters exploring challenges that many developing countries face in augmenting state capacity and accumulating human capital. In particular, I focus on difficulties in developing state capacity and human capital induced by political violence, natural disasters, and over-reliance on income from foreign countries. The first chapter explores the effects of losing local politicians on the fiscal and personnel capacity of local governments using the outcome of the assassination attempts on mayors in Mexico. The second chapter investigates the effects of exposure to natural disasters on birth outcomes in Indonesia, using the Indian Ocean Tsunami as a natural experiment. In the final chapter, I use a cross-country analysis to study the link between reliance on remittances and the capacity of a country to collect taxes efficiently. The first chapter investigates the effects of losing mayors to successful assassinations on the capacity of local governments. By leveraging the randomness in the outcomes of assassination attempts against mayors in Mexico in 2002-21, I find that the loss of mayors negatively affects the fiscal and personnel capacities of the local governments. Municipal tax collection decreases by 29\%. The share of expenditure on primary services falls by 3 percentage points and is crowded out toward investment in construction. Municipal workers at productive stages in their careers leave the position. The back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that wages should increase by 13\% to retain them after assassinations. Organized criminal groups take advantage of the loss of mayors by increasing their presence in municipalities with successful assassinations. The results are not explained by non-political violence, levels of economic activities, or population changes. The results speak to the significance of leaders in maintaining fiscal capacity and retaining capable personnel in the workforce even in a violent environment. In the second chapter, co-authored with Elizabeth Kayoon Hur (Michigan State University), I evaluate the effect of in-utero exposure to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on short-term childbirth outcomes in Indonesia. Exploiting variation in the timing of exposure, I find that the probability of successful pregnancies drops by 5.9 percentage points (pp), while miscarriages increase by 5.5 pp for those exposed in the earliest stage of pregnancy. I find suggestive evidence that post-disaster health investments by households may have shielded later cohorts from harmful effects. The results suggest the importance of considering fetal loss in developing countries and highlight that facilitating household investment in health through various policies may mitigate negative birth effects in the aftermath of natural disasters. The third chapter investigates the relationship between a country's reliance on remittances from abroad and its ability to collect taxes from various domestic sources. Despite the increasing flow of remittances in volume and proportion, particularly among developing countries, their role in determining the state's capacity to collect taxes has received little attention. This chapter explores the link between remittances and various tax revenue categories using country-level data. Two-way panel regressions suggest that a 1 percentage point (pp) increase in the inflow of remittances explains a 0.12 pp rise in consumption tax revenues. The same estimate derived from IV methods proxying for migrant network strength and openness of borders increases to 0.9 pp. Decomposing this result reveals that the increase in household consumption expenditure explains all of the statistical association, not the efficient tax-collecting mechanisms such as VAT. Subsample regressions by income category suggest that the association between remittances and consumption tax revenue is stronger in countries with lower income.

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This thesis examines Late Minoan Settlements in Crete that were destroyed or abandoned due to the consequences of the Santorini volcano eruption. A summary of geological history of Crete, Thera and the surrounding area is given in the first part. The next chapter sums up the research in the fields of relative and mainly absolute chronology, of which scientists have not yet been able to provide a convincing calendar date for the eruption of the volcano nor a possible fixed absolute chronology of the general Later Bronze Age not only in the Aegean. The development of the Santorini Volcano eruption in the Late Minoan IA period (LM IA) is described. According to the research, this eruption must have caused earthquakes and tsunamis. The possible impact on the near island of Crete, its inhabitants and settlements, mainly in the coastal area of north-northeast part of the island, is also discussed.

The recent 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami served as a stark reminder of the destructive capabilities of such combined events. Civil Engineers are increasingly tasked with protecting coastal populations and infrastructure against more severe multi-hazard events. Whilst the protective measures must be robust, their deployment over long stretches of coastline necessitates an economical and environmentally friendly design. The dual row retaining wall concept, which features two parallel sheet pile walls with a sand infill between them and tie rods connecting the wall heads, is potentially an efficient and resilient system in the face of both earthquake and tsunami loading. Optimal use of the soil's strength and stiffness as part of the structural system is an elegant geotechnical solution which could also be applied to harbours or elevated roads. However, both the static equilibrium and dynamic response of these types of constructions are not well understood and raise many academic and practical challenges. A combination of centrifuge and numerical modelling was utilised to investigate the problem. Studying the mechanics of the walls in dry sand from the soil stresses to the system displacements revealed the complex nature of the soil structure interaction. Increased wall flexibility can allow more utilisation of the soil's plastic capacity without necessarily increasing the total displacements. Recognising the dynamically varying vertical effective stresses promotes a purer understanding of the earth pressures mobilised around the walls and may encourage a move away from historically used dynamic earth pressure coefficients. In a similar vein, the proposed modified Winkler method can form the basis of an efficient preliminary design tool for practice with a reduced disconnect between the wall movements and mobilised soil stresses. When founded in liquefiable soil and subjected to harmonic base motion, the dual row walls were resilient to catastrophic collapse and only accrued deformation in a ratcheting fashion. The experiments and numerical simulations highlighted the importance of relative suction between the walls, shear-induced dilation and regained strength outside the walls and partial drainage in the co-seismic period. The use of surrogate modelling to automatically optimise parameter selection for the advanced constitutive model was successfully explored. Ultimately, focussing on the mechanics of the dual row walls has helped further the academic and practical understanding of these complex but life-saving systems.

A massive tsunami hit Aceh in December 26, 2004. It was one of the biggest natural disasters of the century. The tsunami’s unprecedented destruction of the area attracted the biggest influx ever of international aid and highlighted the nearly non-existent social service system at local levels. The abundance of international aid served as an impetus for the Indonesian government to review their social service system. This is the first time that resources from international aid in Indonesia were allocated for professionalization of social workers. This dissertation utilizes a qualitative narrative analysis to explore the questions: How do Indonesian social workers understand and express their experience of the social work professionalization process post-2004 tsunami? How do they interpret the process of professionalization? How do the systems available influence their professional interpretation of the experience and affect their strategies to gain public recognition and resources to claim professional jurisdiction in a society? Interviews were conducted of fifteen Indonesian social workers who were involved in the 2004 tsunami recovery efforts and are still active in the social work professionalization efforts today. The findings show that the international aid and 2004 tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia was the impetus for professionalization of social work in Indonesia. This study explores how Indonesian social workers understand and interpret their experience during the tsunami 2004 recovery efforts using Abbott’s system of professions concepts to frame the professionalization process as impacted by international aid during the 2004 tsunami. The findings revolve around formal public recognition, community sanction and a systematic knowledge base in Indonesia’s social work professionalization process.

Cette étude, réalisée à l'initiative du gouvernement monégasque, a pour objectif une meilleure connaissance du risque sismique en Principauté de Monaco. Elle utilise les techniques de la géomatique, de l'analyse microstructurale, de la sismotectonique, du microzonage et exploite les archives monégasques sur les effets du séisme Ligure de 1887.<br />L'analyse géomatique de la déformation révèle l'importance des accidents N100-110°E dans la structuration de l'arc de Nice, dont le rôle était jusqu'alors insuffisamment pris en compte dans les modèles sismotectoniques régionaux.<br />Le calcul de l'état de contrainte et l'analyse des champs de déformation ont mis en évidence un changement récent de la dynamique du sud des Alpes maritimes franco-italiennes. Elles paraissent désormais en extension suivant une direction ENE-OSO alors qu'elles étaient en raccourcissement subméridien depuis le Paléogène.<br />Les paramètres du séisme de référence à prendre en compte à Monaco pour l'application de la réglementation parasismique ont été affinés et les résultats du microzonage précisés. L'analyse des archives monégasques a permis de définir, sur Monaco, une intensité macrosismique de 6 EMS-98 pour le séisme ligure de 1887 et a mis en évidence la vulnérabilité du bâti ancien.<br />Cette mise à jour de l'état de la connaissance de l'aléa sismique en Principauté ouvre des pistes nouvelles pour une meilleure prise en compte du risque sismique en Principauté de Monaco.

Les travaux présentés concernent l'étude de problèmes d'existence, d'unicité et de régularité de problèmes d'écoulement de fluides géophysiques. On s'intéresse en particulier aux écoulements des masses d'eau à travers des modèles bi-dimensionnels et tri-dimensionnels. Dans une première partie est présentée différentes approches de la simulation de ces écoulements par les méthodes de Galerkin linéaire et non linéaire. Les résultats de convergence de ces méthodes numériques sont présentés dans le cas bidimensionnel. Dans une seconde partie l'impact de l'hypothèse du toit rigide sur le comportement des solutions est étudié. Différents schémas numériques de résolution sont proposés, permettant de traiter efficacement les différentes contraintes globales liées à cette hypothèse. Des résultats de convergence de la méthode sont présentés pour des modèles de shallow water mono-couche et bi-couche. La dernière partie de ces travaux est consacrée à l'étude d'un couplage entre les vibrations de la croûte terrestre et la masse d'eau océanique. Cette approche utilisant un opérateur de plaque pour la modélisation de la croûte terrestre permet d'obtenir des résultats d'existence et d'unicité des solutions. Ce type de modèle est adaptée, entre autre, la modélisation de phénomènes de tsunami.

L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'approfondir les connaissances en terme d'aléa tsunami en Méditerranée occidental et Atlantique nord. Elle se concentre sur des tsunamis d'origine sismique qui présentent l'avantage d'être précédés d'un précurseur utile pour déclencher l'alerte, car pouvant être ressenti par la population : le séisme. Deux types d'études sont présentés. Elles ont été effectuées sur la base de recherches de documents historiques et/ou de dépôts sédimentaires, en utilisant ensuite la modélisation numérique mettant en application une méthode de calcul de propagation de tsunami par différences finies. La modélisation permet de produire des cartes de hauteur de vagues maximum attendues pour chaque scénario, proposer des temps d'arrivée, des limites de zones d'inondation et l'étude des phénomènes de résonance. Les premières études concernent l'impact tsunami que peuvent avoir des sources sismiques paramètres de rupture) préalablement proposées par des études antérieures (le tsunami de 1755 aux Antilles, à Terre-Neuve et celui de Zemmouri de 2003 dans le sud de la France). Et les secondes correspondent à des études approfondies sur les sources, proposant des scénarios de rupture et donc de génération/propagation de tsunami calant au mieux les données observations d'ordre géologique (sismicité, mécanismes au foyer, données GPS, ruptures de surface, etc.) et les données marégraphiques disponibles (hauteur de vagues, temps d'arrivée, périodes) et observations de terrains (limites et hauteur d'inondation, dégâts). Sur ce point les études ont porté sur les tsunamis de Jijel (1856), El Asnam (1580) et du détroit de Douvres (1580).

<p>De större hjälporganisationerna organiserade sina hjälpinsatser på liknande sätt under tsunamikatastrofen. Oftast kom en appell från någon systerorganisation. Därefter gjordes en sammanställning av hjälpbehovet, innan man skickade det som behövdes till området, vare sig det var material eller kunnig personal. Det var sedan systerorganisationen som styrde arbetet på plats eftersom de känner bäst till sitt lands samhällsstruktur. Risken för kulturkrockar minskade genom att de utländska biståndarbetarna kunde vända sig till sin systerorganisation för råd och stöd i frågor rörande den kultur de befann sig i.</p><p>Medias roll under och efter katastrofen har varit både informativ och granskande, men den kunde också vara spekulativ och osaklig. Man kan se en viss skillnad mellan morgontidningarna och kvällstidningarna. Kvällstidningarna verkade i högre grad vilja försöka sälja lösnummer på människors lidande och var mer individfokuserad än morgontidningarna. Morgontidningarna speglade tsunamin mer ur ett helhetsperspektiv. Jag fann också att morgontidningarna oftare hänvisade till källorna än kvällstidningarna.</p><p>Under tsunamikatastrofen väcktes existentiella frågor. Jag fann att många av dessa tankar handlade om livets förändlighet, hur snabbt allt kan ändras. Många tankar kretsade kring familjen. Detta kom fram både i enkätundersökningen och hos de som arbetade med katastrofen. Tankarna kring tsunamikatastrofen verkar dock idag handla mer om hur man kan få till stånd bättre och snabbare krisberedskap, än om de existentiella tankarna, som var mer dominerande direkt efter att katastrofen inträffat.</p><p>Det unika med tsunamikatastrofen var att den väckte ett starkt engagemang bland folk som på olika sätt ville hjälpa till. Nu verkar det dock som att tsunamin börjat blekna för de flesta. Man kan se på nya insamlingar olika hjälporganisationer gjort att engagemanget inte är så stort som under tsunamikatastrofen.</p>