Presently in its second edition, “At Risk” stands as a primary text in risk and vulnerability studies. The authors focus on the political and economic causes of disaster, arguing that vulnerability is at the foundation of risks and recovery practices. Through focusing on natural hazards, such as floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes, ”At Risk” demonstrates how social groups with little economic or...

Surveys concerning environmental and health risks point out the lack of trust of citizens in risk evaluations provided by governments. The aim of this paper is to take into account the impact of this potential distrust on political decisions concerning risk reduction. We prove that lack of trust reduces the attractiveness of risk reduction measures. When heterogeneity in risk exposure and the p...

The most important theoretical argument concerning decentralization is that it can improve governance by making government more accountable and responsive to the governed. Improving governance is also central to the motivations of real-world reformers, who bear risks and costs in the interest of devolution. But the literature has mostly focused instead on policy-relevant outcomes, such as educa...

I discuss how aid can support growth in small, isolated economies. Small markets frustrate scale economies and competition. Combined with high transport costs, essential inputs become prohibitively expensive. Breaking the coordination problem requires pioneering investment. Since this generates externalities it will be undersupplied. Donors have both the finance and the long-term relationships ...

This issue of the Journal features two papers, Community Rating of Health Insurance and Different Benefit Packages by Matthias Kifman and Alternative Health Insurance Schemes: A Welfare Comparison by Hansen and Keiding, that examine the welfare implications of permitting voluntary supplementary insurance in a regime with a community-rated, compulsory basic insurance package. This is a critical ...