IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpd/articl/v3y2020i2jbpa.32.99.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leaving home ain’t easy: Citizen compliance with local government hurricane evacuation orders

Author

Listed:
  • Jennifer M. Connolly

    (University of Miami)

  • Casey Klofstad

    (University of Miami)

  • Joseph Uscinski

    (University of Miami)

Abstract

Although local officials often issue policy directives and urge residents to comply, many policy directives lack monitoring or enforcement mechanisms. Without strong enforcement mechanisms, how can public officials increase citizen cooperation? We examine this question in the context of hurricane evacuation orders. Do different communication frames impact public compliance with evacuation orders? Analyzing data on Florida residents, the results of a survey experiment show that respondents exposed to a statement lacking certainty were significantly less willing to evacuate than the control group, and other communication strategies-including describing incentives and potential enforcement mechanisms-had no impact on willingness to cooperate with an evacuation order. The results suggest that uncertain government messaging may decrease policy compliance in cases lacking strong enforcement mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer M. Connolly & Casey Klofstad & Joseph Uscinski, 2020. "Leaving home ain’t easy: Citizen compliance with local government hurricane evacuation orders," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 3(2).
  • Handle: RePEc:bpd:articl:v:3:y:2020:i:2:jbpa.32.99
    DOI: 10.30636/jbpa.32.99
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journal-bpa.org/index.php/jbpa/article/download/99/90
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.30636/jbpa.32.99?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brodie, M. & Weltzien, E. & Altman, D. & Blendon, R.J. & Benson, J.M., 2006. "Experiences of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston shelters: Implications for future planning," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(8), pages 1402-1408.
    2. Michele M. Wood & Dennis S. Mileti & Megumi Kano & Melissa M. Kelley & Rotrease Regan & Linda B. Bourque, 2012. "Communicating Actionable Risk for Terrorism and Other Hazards⋆," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(4), pages 601-615, April.
    3. Gerber, Alan S. & Green, Donald P. & Larimer, Christopher W., 2008. "Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 102(1), pages 33-48, February.
    4. Alice Fothergill & Lori Peek, 2004. "Poverty and Disasters in the United States: A Review of Recent Sociological Findings," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 32(1), pages 89-110, May.
    5. Nickerson, David W., 2008. "Is Voting Contagious? Evidence from Two Field Experiments," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 102(1), pages 49-57, February.
    6. Meer, Jonathan, 2011. "Brother, can you spare a dime? Peer pressure in charitable solicitation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 926-941.
    7. Elder, K. & Xirasagar, S. & Miller, N. & Bowen, S.A. & Glover, S. & Piper, C., 2007. "African Americans' decisions not to evacuate New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina: A qualitative study (American Journal of Public Health (2007) 97 (S124-S129) doi:10.2105/AJPH.2006.100867)," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(12), pages 2122-2122.
    8. Elder, K. & Xirasagar, S. & Miller, N. & Bowen, S.A. & Glover, S. & Piper, C., 2007. "African Americans' decisions not to evacuate New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina: a qualitative study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(S1), pages 124-129.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vincenzo Galasso & Carlotta Varriale, 2021. "The Effectiveness of Leaders' Public Communication During Covid-19," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 21162, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    2. Vincenzo Galasso & Carlotta Varriale, 2021. "The Effectiveness of Leaders' Public Communication During Covid-19," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 21162, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Grácio, Matilde & Vicente, Pedro C., 2021. "Information, get-out-the-vote messages, and peer influence: Causal effects on political behavior in Mozambique," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    2. Finan, Frederico & Seira, Enrique & Simpser, Alberto, 2021. "Voting with one’s neighbors: Evidence from migration within Mexico," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    3. Alberto Chong & Gianmarco León‐Ciliotta & Vivian Roza & Martín Valdivia & Gabriela Vega, 2019. "Urbanization Patterns, Information Diffusion, and Female Voting in Rural Paraguay," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 63(2), pages 323-341, April.
    4. An, Shi & Cui, Na & Li, Xiaopeng & Ouyang, Yanfeng, 2013. "Location planning for transit-based evacuation under the risk of service disruptions," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-16.
    5. Fosco, Constanza & Laruelle, Annick & Sánchez, Angel, 2009. "Turnout Intention and Social Networks," IKERLANAK info:eu-repo/grantAgreeme, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    6. Hoffman, Mitchell & León, Gianmarco & Lombardi, María, 2017. "Compulsory voting, turnout, and government spending: Evidence from Austria," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 103-115.
    7. J. Andrew Harris & Catherine Kamindo & Peter van der Windt, 2020. "Electoral Administration in Fledgling Democracies:Experimental Evidence from Kenya," Working Papers 20200036, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jan 2020.
    8. James E. Cone & Lucie Millien & Cristina Pollari & Jennifer Brite & Heather Badger & John Kubale & Grace Noppert & Sonia Hegde & Robert Brackbill & Mark Farfel, 2024. "The Association between Socioeconomic Status and Race/Ethnicity with Home Evacuation of Lower Manhattan Residents following the 9/11/2001 World Trade Center Disaster," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(6), pages 1-8, June.
    9. Civelek, Yasin, 2023. "The effect of hurricanes on mental health over the long term," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    10. Xavier Giné & Ghazala Mansuri, 2018. "Together We Will: Experimental Evidence on Female Voting Behavior in Pakistan," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 207-235, January.
    11. Ibraheem M. Karaye & Courtney Thompson & Maria Perez‐Patron & Nicholas Taylor & Jennifer A. Horney, 2020. "Estimating Evacuation Shelter Deficits in the Houston–Galveston Metropolitan Area," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(5), pages 1079-1091, May.
    12. James E. Alt & Amalie Jensen & Horacio Larreguy & David D. Lassen & John Marshall, 2022. "Diffusing Political Concerns: How Unemployment Information Passed between Social Ties Influences Danish Voters," Post-Print hal-03566206, HAL.
    13. Alberto Chong & Gianmarco León & Vivian Roza & Martin Valdivia & Gabriela Vega, 2017. "Urbanization patterns, social interactions and female voting in rural Paraguay," Economics Working Papers 1589, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    14. Morris, Katherine Ann & Deterding, Nicole M., 2016. "The emotional cost of distance: Geographic social network dispersion and post-traumatic stress among survivors of Hurricane Katrina," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 56-65.
    15. Rebecca R. Thompson & Dana Rose Garfin & Roxane Cohen Silver, 2017. "Evacuation from Natural Disasters: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 812-839, April.
    16. Camila F. S. Campos & Shaun Hargreaves Heap & Fernanda Leite Lopez de Leon, 2017. "The political influence of peer groups: experimental evidence in the classroom," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 963-985.
    17. Sebastian Garmann, 2020. "Political efficacy and the persistence of turnout shocks," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 411-429, November.
    18. Marcus Holmes & Costas Panagopoulos, 2014. "The social brain paradigm and social norm puzzles," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 26(3), pages 384-404, July.
    19. Federico Revelli & Roberto Zotti, 2019. "The sacred and the profane of budget cycles: evidence from Italian municipalities," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(6), pages 1446-1477, December.
    20. Gabriella Rundblad & Olivia Knapton & Paul R. Hunter, 2014. "The Causes and Circumstances of Drinking Water Incidents Impact Consumer Behaviour: Comparison of a Routine versus a Natural Disaster Incident," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-16, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Government orders; Policy implementation; Local government; Natural disasters; Citizen compliance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • Z00 - Other Special Topics - - General - - - General
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpd:articl:v:3:y:2020:i:2:jbpa.32.99. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sebastian Jilke (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://journal-bpa.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.