Reviewing estimates of the economic efficiency of disaster risk management: Opportunities and limitations of using risk-based cost-benefit analysis

Natural Hazards, April 2016, Volume 81, Issue 3, pp. 2121-2147, doi:10.1007/s11069-016-2170-y:

This paper examines the evidence regarding the economic efficiency of disaster risk management (DRM) based on cost-benefit analysis (CBA). Specifically, it addresses the following questions: What can be said about current and best practice regarding CBA for DRR including limitations and alternatives? And, what, if at all, can be said in terms of quantitative insight for informing policy and practice?

The review compares the documented evidence on the net benefits over a range of disaster management interventions, such as risk reduction, preparedness and risk financing. It also discusses the applicability of cost–benefit analysis as well as other economic decision-supporting tools for assessing the efficiency of certain DRM interventions.