The Political Economy of Hurricane Katrina and Community Rebound

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina posed an unprecedented set of challenges to formal and informal systems of disaster response and recovery. Informed by the Virginia School of Political Economy, the contributors to this volume critically examine the public policy environment that led to both successes and failures in the post-Katrina disaster response and long-term recovery. Building from this perspective, this volume lends critical insight into the nature of the social coordination problems disasters present, the potential for public policy to play a positive role, and the inherent limitations policymakers face in overcoming the myriad challenges that are a product of catastrophic disaster.

Soon after Hurricane Katrina wreaked its havoc, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University launched the Gulf Coast Recovery Project. The project assembled a team of researchers to examine the capacity within political, economic, and civic life to foster robust response and recovery. Building on both quantitative and qualitative analysis, the contributors to this volume seek to understand the recovery process from the ground up – from the perspective of first-responders, residents, business-owners, non-profit directors, musicians, teachers, and school administrators, and how ordinary citizens respond to the formal and informal rules of the post-disaster policy context.

Personal, political and poignant, The Political Economy of Hurricane Katrina and Community Rebound will appeal to economists interested in the political economy of disaster and disaster recovery, disaster specialists, and general readers interested in the challenges those affected by Hurricane Katrina have faced, and are facing, and their prospects for recovering from the 2005 disaster.