ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2206-7843

Date of Award

Summer 2026

Language

English

Embargo Period

7-20-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Public Administration and Policy

Program

Public Administration and Policy

First Advisor

Gang Chen

Committee Members

Jennifer Dodge, Mikhail Ivonchyk

Keywords

disaster finance, disaster mitigation, public finance, public financial management, social equity, fiscal resilience

Subject Categories

Emergency and Disaster Management | Public Administration

Abstract

As climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, local governments face growing pressure to manage disaster-related fiscal shocks. Although disaster mitigation and preparedness are widely recognized as cost-effective strategies for reducing future losses, local governments often lack the financial, political, and technical capacity to invest in them. Despite the importance of pre-disaster investment, mitigation and preparedness efforts continue to lag at the local level, and concerns remain that federal mitigation funding is not distributed equitably across communities. This has important implications for both equity and resilience because unequal access to mitigation resources can reinforce existing vulnerability to future natural disasters and widen resilience gaps across communities. This dissertation examines how disaster mitigation funding can build fiscal resilience and enhance social equity in local communities. It addresses three related questions: whether federal mitigation resources reach the communities that need them most, whether these intergovernmental resources strengthen local fiscal resilience, and how local governments make their own preparedness investment decisions under uncertainty. The findings show that mitigation resources matter, but access to them is inequitably distributed. Socially vulnerable counties are less likely to receive federal hazard mitigation grants, and local governments’ organizational capacity does not substantially offset this disadvantage, suggesting persistent equity concerns in the allocation of federal mitigation resources. At the same time, counties that receive mitigation grants appear better able to resist disaster-induced expenditure disruptions, although the evidence that these grants accelerate fiscal recovery is more limited. The dissertation also finds that local preparedness spending remains low and uneven. Among California cities, preparedness spending is shaped more strongly by prior spending patterns and disaster experience than by neighboring jurisdictions’ spending behavior, providing limited evidence of spatial diffusion and potentially reflecting limited institutional mechanisms for intermunicipal learning about preparedness investment. Taken together, this dissertation shows that federal mitigation resources can strengthen local fiscal resilience, but inequitable access to those resources may reinforce fiscal resilience gaps across local governments. It also demonstrates that local preparedness investment remains a challenge, requiring greater attention to the fiscal and institutional conditions that motivate pre-disaster spending. As disaster risks continue to grow, building fiscally resilient governments and communities will require more equitable intergovernmental support and stronger local capacity to connect disaster planning with long-term financial management.

License

This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

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