Social Capital and Disaster Recovery: Evidence from Sichuan Earthquake in 2008-Working Paper 344

Chung Wing Tse ()

No 344, Working Papers from Center for Global Development

Abstract: Social capital can help reduce adverse shocks by facilitating access to transfers and remittances.This study examines how various measures of social capital are associated with disaster recovery after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. We find that households having a larger Spring Festival network in 2008 do better in housing reconstruction. A larger network significantly increases the amount of government aid received for housing reconstruction. Furthermore, households having larger networks receive monetary and material support from more people, which also explains the positive impacts on recovery from the earthquake. As for other measures of social capital, connections with government officials and communist party membership do not significantly contribute to disaster recovery. Human capital, measured by the years of schooling of household head, is not positively correlated with housing reconstruction.

Keywords: natural disasters; social capital; Sichuan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H84 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2013-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgd:wpaper:344

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