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Catastrophic Incentives: Why Our Approaches to Disasters Keep Falling Short

Examining twenty years of disasters from 9/11 to COVID-19, Jeff Schlegelmilch and Ellen Carlin show how flawed incentive structures make the world more vulnerable when catastrophe strikes. They explore how governments, the private sector, nonprofits, and academia behave before, during, and after crises, arguing that standard operational and business models have produced dysfunction. Catastrophic Incentives reveals troubling patterns about what does and does not matter to the institutions that are responsible for dealing with disasters. The short-termism of electoral politics and corporate decision making, the funding structure of nonprofits, and the institutional dynamics shaping academic research have all contributed to a failure to build resilience. Buy the book here at Columbia University Press.

"This sharp analysis offers fresh insight into the ways that the very structures we rely on to keep us safe from disasters are falling short. The authors provide a path forward and a reason to believe that a more resilient future is possible." - Tom Daschle, Commissioner, Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense and Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader