Global change, natural disasters and international aid

摘要

In light of global change phenomena leading to rising natural disaster losses in the developing world, this paper explores the possibilities for increasing the global sharing of these losses through novel forms of international disaster aid. Specifically, it is proposed that governments of wealthy countries consider aiding poor countries in their purchase of ex ante risk-transfer instruments, including traditional insurance and capital-market instruments, such as catastrophe bonds that directly transfer risks to the international capital markets.