Citation

Barnett BJ. Disasters 1999; 23(2): 139-155.

Affiliation

Department of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University, USA. barnett@agecon.msstate.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10379097

Abstract

Governments often provide grants or low-interest loans to disaster victims. Yet these programmes have proven to be quite costly. In addition, questions have been raised about associated behavioural incentives. Conceptually, government disaster insurance programmes should be more efficient, consistent and equitable than ex post facto disaster relief in the form of grants and loans. Yet the performance of government disaster insurance programmes has been mixed, at best. This article reviews the history of US federal natural disaster assistance to individuals and concludes with a recommendation for a new government role in the provision of disaster insurance.

Language: en