In this two-volume set the editors have brought together some of the most significant previously published papers by leading academics in this field. The Economics of Natural Hazards investigates the impact of natural disasters on national and regional economies. Volume I considers the effects both of the perception of risk and of direct losses and explores the costs of reducing the impact of disasters by, for example, forecasting, self-protection and the building of physical structures. Volume II deals with mitigating the costs of disaster through insurance, including financial coverage for catastrophic loss, and investigates the development of private - public partnerships for managing disasters and the problems of reconstruction and recovery. A final section addresses the particular problems of disasters in developing countries. 52 articles, dating from 1964 to 2002