As losses from natural disasters steadily increase, communities search for ways to increase resilience. The state of Florida enacted stronger building codes in 2002 as a way to limit losses from windstorms. This study uses realized insured loss data to examine the effect of the Florida Building...

Hurricane Andrew revealed inadequate construction practices were utilized in Florida for decades. In response, Florida adopted a new statewide code – the 2001 Florida Building Code (FBC) which became one of the strictest in the nation. We use ten years of insured loss data to show that the FBC...

Implementing strong building codes is touted as a way to reduce natural disaster property damages. However, at the local level not all jurisdictions adopt equally stringent codes nor properly enforce their codes once they have been adopted. We empirically test whether zip code jurisdictions with...