Poverty, Inequality, and Disasters – An Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

In recent years, the economic consequences of disasters and global climate change have received increasing attention, most recently thanks to the activism of young people around the world. The increased impacts of disasters and climate change have significant effects on human and economic development, particularly on the distribution of income and wealth, and on poverty. These impacts raise serious economic, political and social concerns, which have generated a new interest in research both on the factors that contribute to increased poverty and inequality, in this context of disasters and extreme weather, and on the policies designed to reduce them. This special issue, “Poverty, Inequality, and Disasters,” consists mostly ofpapers presented in the CESifo Venice Summer Institute Workshop on Poverty, Inequality and their Associa- tions with Disasters and Climate Change, held in June 2019 on the island ofSan Servolo in the Bay ofVenice, Italy. The empirical analysis of how extreme natural hazard events impact the poor, and affect the distribution of economic outcomes was the main theme of the workshop....