The Chair in the Economics of Disasters was established in July 2013 with sponsorship from Victoria University of Wellington, the Earthquake Commission and the Ministry for Primary Industries.
This need for such analysis was clearly demonstrated close to home after the Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010-2011, but more recently by the East Japan tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011, Hurricanes Harvey and Maria in the United States in 2017, the Nepal Earthquake in 2015, as well as health-related disasters such as the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014.
The work under the Chair in the Economics of Disasters also aims to fill a gap in preparedness of the public, private, and academic sectors in the face of future risks attributable to climate change.
The Chair's activities promote greater engagement between policymaking, academia and the private sector. There is a common interest in adopting a more pragmatic, holistic approach to disaster risk management, and in undertaking rigorous research of the economic implication of geophysical, biological and climate related disasters in New Zealand.
Located in the School of Economics and Finance, the holder of the Chair is Professor Ilan Noy. Ilan is a Professor of Economics at Victoria University of Wellington.