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Earthquake Hazard and Civic Capital

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Abstract

We examine the empirical relationship between the exposure to earthquake hazard and civic capital in Italian municipalities. Drawing on the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, we find that earthquake hazard increases civic capital. We decompose the effect of earthquake hazard variation along four dimensions – frequency, space, magnitude, and timing – and observe that the effect is mostly explained by high-magnitude seismic events in the past. Our results are in line with the intuition that cooperative social norms build over a very long time span.

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  • Paolo Buonanno & Giacomo Plevani & Marcello Puca, 2021. "Earthquake Hazard and Civic Capital," CSEF Working Papers 612, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:sef:csefwp:612
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    1. Mattia Balestra & Giulio Cainelli & Roberto Ganau & Nadiia Matsiuk & Mario Pasquato & Roberto Pierdicca, 2025. "Sovereignty, Civic Capital, and Local Development. A Historical Perspective in Economic Geography," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2504, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Feb 2025.
    2. Cerqua, Augusto & Ferrante, Chiara & Letta, Marco, 2023. "Electoral earthquake: Local shocks and authoritarian voting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    3. Lo Prete, Anna & Sacchi, Agnese, 2023. "Civic engagement and government spending: Lessons from global warming," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202319, University of Turin.
    4. Paolo Buonanno & Sergio Galletta & Marcello Puca, 2023. "The role of civic capital on vaccination," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 993-999, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Civic Capital; Cooperation; Social Norms; Earthquakes.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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