Political Economy of Earthquakes

From the article "Earthquake Fatalities: The Interaction of Nature and Political Economy" (Anbarci, Escaleras, & Register: 2005):

Abstract: To say that the level of fatalities resulting from an earthquake is inversely related to a country’s per capita level of income is hardly novel. What makes our approach novel is that we relate fatalities to both per capita income and the level of inequality that exists within a country through their joint impact on the likelihood of collective action being taken to mitigate the destructive potential of quakes.

This is an example of applied research to reduce the negative effects of earthquakes, in the context of Haiti:

. . . [a] new technique he helped develop that can better protect bridges from damage caused by earthquakes and explosions, either malevolent or accidental.