Eric Neumayer

The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981-2002

Abstract Natural disasters do not affect people equally. In fact, a vulnerability approach to disasters would suggest that inequalities in exposure and sensitivity to risk as well as inequalities in access to resources, capabilities, and opportunities systematically disadvantage certain groups of people, rendering them more vulnerable to the impact of natural disasters. In this article we address the specific vulnerability of girls and women with respect to mortality from natural disasters and their aftermath. Biological and physiological differences between the sexes are unlikely to explain large-scale gender differences in mortality rates. Social norms and role behaviors provide some further explanation, but what is likely to matter most is the everyday socioeconomic status of women. In a sample of up to 141 countries over the period 1981 to 2002 we analyze the effect of disaster strength and its interaction with the socioeconomic status of women on the change in the gender gap in life expectancy. We find, first, that natural disasters lower the life expectancy of women more than that of men. In other words, natural disasters (and their subsequent impact) on average kill more women than men or kill women at an earlier age than men. Since female life expectancy is generally higher than that of males, for most countries natural disasters narrow the gender gap in life expectancy. Second, the stronger the disaster (as approximated by the number of people killed relative to population size), the stronger this effect on the gender gap in life expectancy. That is, major calamities lead to more severe impacts on female life expectancy (relative to that of males) than do smaller disasters. Third, the higher womens socioeconomic status, the weaker is this effect on the gender gap in life expectancy. Taken together our results show that it is the socially constructed gender-specific vulnerability of females built into everyday socioeconomic patterns that lead to the relatively higher female disaster mortality rates compared to men.

Do Democracies Exhibit Stronger International Environmental Commitment? A Cross-country Analysis

This article tests the hypothesis that democracies exhibit stronger international environmental commitment than non-democracies, using multivariate econometric techniques. A number of proxy variables are used in lieu of environmental commitment, a non-observable variable. Strong evidence is found that democracies sign and ratify more multilateral environmental agreements, participate in more environmental intergovernmental organizations, comply better with reporting requirements under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora, put a greater percentage of their land area under protections status, are more likely to have a National Council on Sustainable Development in their country and have more environmentally relevant information available than non-democracies. The findings suggest that a spread of democracy around the world will lead to enhanced environmental commitment worldwide. Results are robust with respect to inclusion or exclusion of developed countries in the sample. The use of four different variables for democracy also ensures robustness with respect to the measure of democracy. The strong evidence in favour of a positive link between democracy and environmental commitment stands in contrast to the somewhat weak evidence on such a link between democracy and environmental outcomes. The explanation presumably is that theory predicts a stronger positive link of democracy with environmental commitment than with environmental outcomes.

The human development index and sustainability -- a constructive proposal

This paper proposes to qualify a country’s human development as potentially unsustainable if the net depreciation of its manufactured and natural capital stock is bigger than its investment. Linking the Human Development Index with sustainability in this way would allow the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to check whether a country is ‘mortgaging the choices of future generations’. An analysis for 155 countries leads to the conclusion that the indicated human development of 42 countries is potentially unsustainable. Most of these countries have a low HDI, which means that even this low achievement is not sustainable into the future. The results make a case for both a policy reform within these countries and for external assistance to help maintain at least this low level of human development.

The Pattern of Aid Giving : The Impact of Good Governance on Development Assistance

1. Introduction 2. Good Governance and its Relation to Aid 3. Overview of Existing Studies 4. Research Design 5. Aggregate Aid, Western Bilateral and Multilateral Aid 6. The Arab Donors 7. Analysis and Discussion of Results 8. Testing the Robustness of Results 9. Conclusions

In Defence of Historical Accountability for Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The principle of historical accountability allocates the rights to emit greenhouse gas emissions according to the relative contribution of a country towards the accumulation of gases in the atmosphere. Implicitly it gives every man and woman an equal share of the global atmosphere, independent of place or time. Three reasons are put forward in favour of historical accountability as a just principle for a international allocation of emission rights. In addition, six arguments are given to refute objections against the basic validity of the principle as it has been dismissed by many and is resisted by developed country representatives and the institutions they dominate.

Do Human Rights Matter in Bilateral Aid Allocation? A Quantitative Analysis of 21 Donor Countries*

Objective. This paper analyses the role of human rights in bilateral aid allocation decisions of 21 donor countries. Methods. Econometric analysis is applied to a panel of three-year averages from 1984 to 1995. Results. Respect for civil/political rights plays a statistically significant role for almost all aid donors on whether a country is deemed eligible for the receipt of aid. Personal integrity rights, on the other hand, are insignificant. Civil/political rights remain significant for a bare majority of aid donors with respect to the amount of aid allocated to a country. Personal integrity rights gain some significance at this stage, but for a few donor countries only. There is no systematic difference apparent between countries commonly regarded as committed to human rights (Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway) and the rest of donor countries.Conclusions. Donor countries still have a long way to go in rewarding respect for human rights in their foreign aid allocation.

The Determinants of Aid Allocation by Regional Multilateral Development Banks and United Nations Agencies

This paper examines which factors can explain the allocation of aid by four regional development banks as well as three United Nations agencies. The results suggest the following: most donors examined also exhibit a bias apparent in bilateral aid allocation in favor of less populous countries. Some of them also share another bias of bilateral donors who give more aid to their former colonies. However, the three United Nations agencies contravene a third bias of bilateral aid allocation and provide more aid to countries geographically more distant from the centers of the Western world. While the regional development banks with the possible exception of the Inter-American one focus exclusively on economic need as measured by per capita income, the three United Nations agencies also take into account human development need in their aid allocation as measured by the Physical Quality of Life Index. Some tentative evidence is found that respect for political freedom is rewarded with higher aid receipts at the aggregate multilateral level and by the Inter-American Development Bank as well as perhaps, in a few estimations, two of the three United Nations agencies. Neither respect for personal integrity rights nor low levels of perceived corruption play any role in the allocation of aid by the donors looked at. In general, higher military expenditures and arms imports are not associated with higher aid receipts, with a few notable exceptions.

Handbook of Sustainable Development

Contents:Preface1. IntroductionGiles Atkinson, Simon Dietz and Eric NeumayerPART I: FUNDAMENTALS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT2. Ethics and Sustainable Development: An Adaptive Approach to Environmental ChoiceBryan G. Norton3. The Capital Approach to SustainabilityGiovanni Ruta and Kirk Hamilton4. Sustainable Development in Ecological EconomicsJeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh5. Ecological and Social ResilienceW. Neil Adger6. Benefit-Cost Analysis and a Safe Minimum Standard of ConservationAlan RandallPART II: INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY7. Valuing the Far-off Future: Discounting and its AlternativesCameron Hepburn8. Population and SustainabilityGeoffrey McNicoll9. Technological Lock-in and the Role of Innovation Timothy J. FoxonPART III: INTRAGENERATIONAL EQUITY AND THE SOCIAL DIMENSION10. Distribution, Sustainability and Environmental PolicyGeoffrey Heal and Bengt Kristrom11. Environmental Justice and SustainabilityJulian Agyeman12. Vulnerability, Poverty and Sustaining Well-being W. Neil Adger and Alexandra WinkelsPART IV: GROWTH, CONSUMPTION AND NATURAL WEALTH 13. The Resource Curse and Sustainable DevelopmentRichard M. Auty14. Structural Change, Poverty and Natural Resource DegradationRamon Lopez15. Economic Growth and the EnvironmentMatthew A. Cole16. Sustainable ConsumptionTim JacksonPART V: PROGRESS IN MEASURING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 17. Environmental and Resource AccountingGlenn-Marie Lange18. Genuine Saving as an Indicator of SustainabilityKirk Hamilton and Katharine Bolt19. Measuring Sustainable Economic WelfareClive Hamilton20. Environmental Space, Material Flow Analysis and Ecological FootprintingIan MoffattPART VI: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT DIFFERENT SCALES21. Sustainable Cities and Local SustainabilityYvonne Rydin22. Sustainable AgricultureClement A. Tisdell23. Corporate Sustainability: Accountability or Impossible Dream?Rob Gray and Jan BebbingtonPART VII: THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION 24. International Environmental Cooperation: The Role of Political FeasibilityCamilla Bretteville Froyn25. Trade and Sustainable DevelopmentKevin P. Gallagher26. The International Politics of Sustainable DevelopmentJohn Vogler27. Financing for Sustainable DevelopmentDavid PearceIndex

The Impact of Political Violence on Tourism

The hypothesis that political violence deters tourism is mainly based on case study evidence and a few quantitative studies confined to a small sample of countries. Two estimation techniques—a fixed-effects panel estimator with contemporaneous effects only and a dynamic generalized method of moments estimator—are used to test the impact of various forms of political violence on tourism. Both models show strong evidence that human rights violations, conflict, and other politically motivated violent events negatively affect tourist arrivals. In a dynamic model, even if autocratic regimes do not resort to violence, they have lower numbers of tourist arrivals than more democratic regimes. Results also show evidence for intraregional, negative spillover, and cross-regional substitution effects.

Overcoming Barriers to Campus Greening: A Survey among Higher Educational Institutions in London, UK

This paper explores the greening of higher educational institutions. It is based on a survey carried out on a sample of higher educational institutions within London, UK. A qualitative research approach, using semi‐structured interviews, is applied to assess: how far the relevant institutions have reached with respect to greening within the areas of energy and solid waste management; what the interviewees consider to be the most important barriers to further greening their campuses; and how such barriers can be reduced, or possibly overcome. The study maintains that although the institutions are not at ground zero with respect to greening, their overall environmental quality is relatively poor, particularly concerning recycling. It is argued that the barrier suggested to be of greatest significance by the interviewees, namely budgetary constrains, is at least partly due to a lack of knowledge concerning how greening initiatives can save costs as well as an institutional reluctance to change. It is concluded therefore that one of the most important measures that needs to be undertaken to overcome barriers to greening is to raise the environmental awareness within campus communities.