Government effectiveness and institutions as determinants of tropical cyclone mortality

Strong institutions as well as economic development are generally understood to play critical roles in protecting societies from the adverse impacts of natural hazards, such as tropical cyclones. The independent effect of institutions on reducing these risks, however, has not been confirmed empirically in previous global studies. As a storm’s path and intensity influence the severity of the damages and may be spatially correlated with human vulnerabilities, failing to accurately capture physical exposure in an econometric analysis may result in imprecise and biased estimates of the influence of the independent variables. Here, we develop an approach to control for physical exposure by spatially interacting meteorological and socioeconomic data for over 1,000 tropical cyclone disasters from 1979 to 2016. We find evidence that higher levels of national government effectiveness are associated with lower tropical cyclone mortality, even when controlling for average income and other socioeconomic conditions. Within countries, deaths are higher when strong winds are concentrated over areas of the country with elevated infant mortality rates, an indicator of institutional effectiveness through public service delivery. These results suggest that policies and programs to enhance institutional capacity and governance can support risk reduction from extreme weather events.