Disaster Assistance Winners and Losers

Maria Watson

Journal of the American Planning Association, 2022, vol. 88, issue 3, 305-318

Abstract: Problem, research strategy, and findingsDisaster assistance in the United States has faced criticism for widening the unequal impacts of disasters, but little is known about whether and how this phenomenon applies to businesses. Small businesses make up most businesses in the United States, but they are particularly vulnerable to hazards given their relative lack of capital. Because recovery assistance to businesses is primarily loan based, this lack of capital can create conflicts in how aid is perceived and allocated. Assistance providers must balance aiding the most severely damaged businesses and lending to those that will be able to repay; for small business, the threat of additional debt can make even low-interest loans seem risky. With this research I attempted to better understand how these competing factors play out in recovery through regression analyses of approved loan amounts and loan utilization decisions in Galveston (TX) after Hurricane Ike. I found that businesses with higher repayment ability such as larger businesses, older businesses, and corporations were approved for high loan amounts. Smaller businesses, businesses with higher damage, and businesses with longer loan terms were less likely to use the loans in their recovery, despite being approved. These findings suggest that businesses with the resources to recover were more likely to be the ones benefiting from additional disaster assistance.Takeaway for practiceThese findings suggest that planners may need to create their own recovery programs specifically targeting subgroups of businesses that are important to their communities. Although important to many economic development initiatives, very small businesses, entrepreneurs, and sole proprietors may not benefit from federal assistance, particularly if they were severely damaged.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01944363.2021.1980086 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjpaxx:v:88:y:2022:i:3:p:305-318

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjpa20

DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2021.1980086

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the American Planning Association is currently edited by Sandi Rosenbloom

More articles in Journal of the American Planning Association from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().