Defining Build-Back-Better after Disasters with an Example: Sri Lanka's Recovery after the 2004 Tsunami

Ilan Noy, Diana De Alwis, Benno Ferrarini and Donghyun Park

International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, 2020, vol. 14, issue 4, 349-380

Abstract: The long-term economic recoveries catastrophic disasters are poorly understood. In contrast, the policy literature is full of aspirational plans to "build-back-better" (BBB) — a recovery that leads to improvements above and beyond the pre-disaster status quo. Yet, BBB remains ill-defined. It is clearly multi-dimensional, but here we focus on assessment of building back a better economy. The central objective of our paper is to propose a more concrete definition of BBB and test it against Sri Lanka's recovery after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. To do so, we propose four criteria against which one should evaluate BBB policies, and then we specifically evaluate these for the recovery as it was experienced in Sri Lanka. These criteria are safety, speed, fairness (inclusiveness), and socio-economic potential.

Keywords: Tsunami; long-run; recovery; disaster; build-back-better; Sri Lanka (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:now:jirere:101.00000122

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