Replication Data for: Earthquake Propensity and the Politics of Mortality Prevention (with Phil Keefer and Thomas Plümper), World Development, 39 (9), 2011, pp. 1530-1541

Governments can significantly reduce earthquake mortality by enforcing quake-proof construction regulation. We exam- ine why many governments do not. First, mortality is lower in countries with higher earthquake propensity, where the payoffs to invest- ments in mortality prevention are greater. Second, the opportunity costs of these investments are higher in poorer countries; mortality is correspondingly less responsive to propensity in poor countries. Third, mortality is higher at any level of quake propensity when gov- ernments have fewer incentives to provide public goods, such as in autocracies with less institutionalized ruling parties or in more corrupt countries.