Natural disasters and social capital formation: The impact of the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake
Abstract
The Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earthquake hit Japan in 1995, causing devastating damage to the economic landscape of southern-central Japan. However, the earthquake also caused people to realize the importance of social capital in Japan. Based on a large, individual-level database comprising 488,223 observations, this study investigates how and the extent to which the earthquake enhanced the investment in social capital through participation in community activity. The differences-in-differences method was used, and the following key findings were obtained: (1) In Japan, people were more likely to invest in social capital in 1996 than in 1991, (2) the effects of the earthquake decreased as the distance of one’s place of residence increased from Kobe, and (3) he earthquake significantly increased the social capital investment rate of Kobe residents, whereas it had no significant influence on the investment rate of residents of large cities close to Kobe.Download Info
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Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 44493.Length:
Date of creation: 17 Feb 2013
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:44493
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Related research
Keywords: Natural disasters; social capital; volunteer activities;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East
- Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters
- Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification
- Z18 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Public Policy
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2013-03-16 (All new papers)
- NEP-SOC-2013-03-16 (Social Norms & Social Capital)
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As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- Natural disasters and social capital (Japan)
by UDADISI in UDADISI on 2013-03-25 12:10:00
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