Many public goods like dams, fire departments, and lighthouses do not provide direct utility but act more as insurance devices against floods, fire, and shipwreck. They either diminish the probability or the size of the loss. We extend the public good model with this insurance aspect and...

This paper introduces a theoretical model that allows the estimation of a household’s valuation of health risks from major storms. An endogenous risk framework is developed in which the household can employ ex-ante self-protection and ex-post mitigating activities and treatments strategies to...

This paper introduces a household model of private investment in storm protection under an endogenous risk framework to determine how ex-ante self-protection and ex-post self-insurance spending by coastal households to mitigate storm-inflicted damages are affected by the availability of public...

We analyze the role of trust in the evaluation of a new food technology, namely nanotechnology. A literature review in the social and economic sciences reveals that many different trust concepts are available. The economics literature suggests that trust can lead to lower efforts of...

Most decisions concerning (self-)insurance and self-protection have to be taken in situations in which a) the effort exerted precedes the moment uncertainty realises, and b) the probabilities of future states of the world are not perfectly known. By integrating these two characteristics in a...

This paper introduces a theoretical model combining household production with an endogenous risk framework in order to understand how ex-ante private spending by coastal households would evolve against ex-post cyclone induced storm surge damage risk given the level of government protective...

This paper questions the positive relationship between HIV prevalence and income in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper, we hypothesize that a greater economic instability would reduce the incentives to engage in self-protective behaviors inducing people to increasingly take the risk of...

Implementing mandatory building codes is a major approach to preparing for natural disasters. Using a simple hybrid model which considers expected utility and spatial equilibrium, this paper analyzes the roles as self-insurance and self-protection played by building codes for regulating land...

The occurrence of debris flows close to a hydropower dam not only threatens human lives and structures, but also affects the stability of the dam. Therefore, hazard assessment and protection of debris flows close to the dam are particular and important. In this paper, 3 S (Geographic Information...

Arsenic contamination in water supplies continues to increase in many countries, especially in developing nations, thereby creating both environmental and health hazard. Its sources and effects are multiple and diffused in nature and it requires detailed assessment and policy. This paper...