Natural disasters, epidemics and intergovernmental relations: More or less decentralisation?

Luiz de Mello and Joao Jalles

No 2207, Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization from Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network

Abstract: The subnational governments, at the regional and local levels, play an important role in the prevention, management and recovery from natural disasters and pandemics/epidemics. These jurisdictions are responsible for issuing and monitoring compliance with several aspects of regulation that are essential for risk prevention, including land use and construction codes; for providing frontline services that are crucial for effective crisis management, including health care, civil protection, and public order and safety; and for rebuilding lost or damaged physical infrastructure in the recovery phase. This paper provides empirical evidence based on impulse response functions that the occurrence of natural disasters and the outbreak of pandemics/epidemics are associated with an increase in the subnational shares of government spending and revenue in the years following these shocks. These decentralisation effects vary according to specific shocks and are conditional on the business cycle: they tend to be stronger when the shocks materialise during cyclical expansions.

Keywords: decentralisation; natural disasters; pandemics; epidemics; public finances; regional autonomy; impulse response functions; panel data. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 H23 H77 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-ure
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Downloads: (external link)
http://infogen.webs.uvigo.es/WP/WP2207.pdf First version, 2022 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Natural Disasters, Epidemics and Intergovernmental Relations: More or Less Decentralisation? (2023)
Working Paper: Natural disasters, epidemics and intergovernmental relations: More or less decentralisation? (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gov:wpaper:2207

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