@article{Chou:205549,
      recid = {205549},
      author = {Chou, Wan-Jung and Huang, Yu-Chia and Chang, Ching-Cheng},
      title = {Precautionary Intentions and Risk Perceptions: Empirical  Evidence from the Victims of Typhoon Morakot},
      address = {2015-05-27},
      number = {330-2016-13435},
      pages = {20},
      month = {May},
      year = {2015},
      abstract = {It has been widely considered that when faced with natural  hazard risks in the future, people adopt precautionary  measures in order to alleviate the impact of a hazardous  event. This study used the data from the Household Survey  of Post-Morakot Social Impact and Recovery-Wave 1  implemented in June, 2010 in Taiwan via face to face  interview with the representatives of the households that  were forced to relocate after the typhoon. The raw data  contains 1658 observations, representing 1658 households.  
Based on a two-stage approach, we, in the first stage,  investigate the determinants of three types of households’  risk perceptions for the future, respectively, with the  following explanatory variables: one’s experience with  disaster with damage incurred, one’s trust in the  authorities as well as local communities regarding their  capacity of emergency response, one’s socio-demographic  backgrounds and one’s residential areas. In the second  stage, we assess the power of previously investigated risk  perceptions, as well as of other factors, in explaining  households’ intention to adopt measures for preparedness,  for mitigation and for recovery, respectively. Subject to  the categorical characteristics of dependent variables, an  ordered probit model was employed. 
Our estimation results  confirm the association between precautionary behaviour  taken before Morakot and households risk perceptions after  typhoon Morakot. However, it is inconclusive regarding  whether or not former actions could reduce risk perceptions  in a later stage. A negative correlation between trust in  the central government and perceived impact of property  loss is observed which suggests that the central  government’s emergency response takes effect on reducing  the damage on property. In comparison, households with  higher trust in local communities tend to have lower  perceived likelihood of a typhoon disaster.  The  corresponding predicted values confirmed that majority of  the sampled households have high or very high risk  perceptions. Households’ socio-demographic background and  the locations of their residency are related to risk  perceptions, primarily perceived probability and impact on  property. 
The extent to which one trusts the central  government and local communities in their disaster response  capacity explains his/her intention to take precautionary  actions. These results imply that households’ trust in the  central government indicates their dependency on the  government and hence results in weaker intention to take  self-protect actions. Furthermore, households who trust in  local communities do not consider that it is the  communities’ responsibility to take protection measures and  being part of the communities, they recognise the necessity  of precautionary actions at the community level.  
Furthermore, we found that excessive compensation is  correlated with weaker intention to purchase property  insurance but a similar effect is not observed with respect  to the intention to take up insurance against personal  accidents. This can be explained by the fact that the  authorities offered to the households affected by typhoon  Morakot a financial compensation package that had extensive  coverage on flooded or damaged housing and this can  disincentivize households to purchase property insurance.  
Finally, the results confirm that certain predictors have  both direct and indirect effects on the intentions to take  certain precautionary measures, when indirect effects are  mediated by risk perceptions. These predictors include  trust in the central government for preparedness and  mitigation, trust in local communicates for preparedness,  mitigation and recovery, age for preparedness measures,  income and illiteracy for mitigation measures and ethnicity  for recovery measures. Moreover, the direct and indirect  effects in some cases can counteract with each other. Thus  if risk communication is to be sought in order to promote  households’ precautionary behaviour against typhoon  hazards, not only the information about the possibility and  potential impact associated with a hazard but also  households’ attitudes and socio-demographic factors ought  to be taken into account in the development of  communication strategies.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/205549},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.205549},
}