 Should population density be used to rank social vulnerability in disaster preparedness planning?Sourav Batabyal and Meagan McCollum Economic Modelling, 2023, vol. 125, issue C Abstract: The CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) was developed to help public health officials and policymakers to identify geospatial variations in social vulnerability for each community to better respond to hazardous events, including disease outbreaks. However, the SVI does not include information on population density, which is a significant omission when considering the usefulness of the index in allocating scarce resources such as medical supplies and personnel, bedding, food, and water to locations they are most needed. Using county-level data from the initial U.S. COVID-19 outbreak, we provide empirical evidence that the existing SVI underestimates (overestimates) county-level infection rates in densely (sparsely) populated counties if population density is not accounted for. Population density remains significant even after allowing for spatial spillover effects. Going forward, the inclusion of population density to construct SVI can improve its usefulness in aiding policymakers in allocating scarce resources for future disasters, especially those with spatial dependence. Keywords: Social vulnerability index; Population density; COVID-19; Stay-at-home notification/advisory; U.S. counties (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:125:y:2023:i:c:s0264999322004023 DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2022.106165 Access Statistics for this article Economic Modelling is currently edited by S. Hall and P. Pauly More articles in Economic Modelling from Elsevier |
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