Risky Business: Willingness to Pay for Disaster Preparedness

A primary government responsibility is ensuring citizen safety and security. Individuals share responsibility for their own protection, but research shows they are typically under-prepared. Despite a growing literature, broad gaps remain in our understanding of people's preparedness choices. This paper focuses on two empirical objectives: understanding people's assessments of the risks they face and their preparedness to meet them, and examining the extent to which people are willing to pay to improve community-level preparedness and individual household preparedness. These objectives are grounded in descriptive analysis of people's perceptions of risk and preparedness. The analysis draws on two original national random surveys of household decision-makers. The findings yield insight into people's support for preparedness and potential response to incentive programs that can inform more effective program designs.