IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/doi10.1086-739331.html

Mandated versus Voluntary Adaptation to Natural Disasters: The Case of US Wildfires

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Baylis
  • Judson Boomhower

Abstract

Despite escalating losses in climate-related disasters, adoption of protective technologies and behaviors is limited by risk misperception, externalities, and insurance market frictions. One response to these market failures is to mandate these investments. We measure the effect of California’s wildfire building codes on own and neighboring structure survival using comprehensive data on US homes exposed to wildfires since 2000. Differences across jurisdictions and vintages reveal remarkable resilience effects of building codes. Codes also increase survival of neighboring homes by reducing structure-to-structure spread. We then develop and estimate a model of social benefits of mandatory building standards versus other adaptation policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Baylis & Judson Boomhower, 2026. "Mandated versus Voluntary Adaptation to Natural Disasters: The Case of US Wildfires," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 134(3), pages 895-948.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/739331
    DOI: 10.1086/739331
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/739331
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/739331
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/739331?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Liao, Yanjun (Penny) & Whitlock, Zach & Kaiser, Brooks & Sølvsten, Simon, 2026. "Co-Managing Natural Catastrophic Risks by the Insurance Industry and Government," RFF Working Paper Series 26-06, Resources for the Future.

    More about this item

    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:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/739331. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE .

    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.