Christian Bjørnskov, affiliated researcher at IFN, has been awarded "The Duncan Black Prize" (together with Stefan Voigt, Hamburg) for his article "Emergencyncies: on the misuse of government powers".
The article will be published in Public Choice, and first of shows that aid during, and after, natural disasters does not work as intended. Even governments in established democracies can, in crisis situations, misuse emergency powers if the opportunity arises. These extra aids, often justified as necessary for the government to act effectively, are simply misused.
Bottom line: politicians might not do the right thing when a crisis arises. Instead they choose to abuse their leadership to satisfy their quest for more power. A result of this is that more people are killed in disasters.