When most of us think of what we should be doing to prepare for disasters, we often forget that exercising our role as citizens and voters can be as important as the more well known tasks like storing emergency supplies or creating a communications plan.

That point is underscored by an intriguing new study, “Preferring A Pound of Cure to an Ounce of Prevention: Voting, Natural Disasters, and Government Response” by Andrew J. Healy, an economics professor at Loyola Marymount University.

By studying data on natural disasters, government spending and election returns, Healy found that “voters reward disaster relief spending but not disaster prevention spending.” As he further concludes: “This aspect of voter behavior creates a large distortion in the incentives that governments face, since data show that prevention spending substantially reduces future damage.” ....