ABSTRACT
The recurrent pictures of disaster victims usually stem from developing or emerging countries and leave the mark that these countries are more frequently hit by natural disasters. However, according to Kahn (2005) developing countries do not experience significantly more natural disaster events; nonetheless countries with lower levels of development suffer ceteris paribus more victims from natural catastrophes than developed countries. Out of all large-scale natural disasters, epidemics, NA-TECH accidents, famines and technological accidents between 1994 and 2004, 79%general catastrophes happened in countries receiving OECD aid (see Table 1). In fact, research suggests that apart from low GDP per capita, weak quality of institutions and high income inequality are good indicators for countries which suffer more casualties after a disaster (Anbarci et al. 2005, Kahn 2005).
