Estimating the cost-effectiveness of resilience to disasters: survey instrument design and refinement of primary data

The chapter provides a methodology for measuring the cost-effectiveness of resilience to disasters. Whereas the vast majority of extant literature in the resilience field focuses on regional and community resilience, this work extends prior work by the authors on microeconomic (that is, firm-level) resilience and its measurement. Firm-level resilience actions, or tactics, are identified and described within an established economic resilience framework. A survey-based approach is presented with an explicit application to businesses impacted by Superstorm Sandy in the New York and New Jersey coastal areas. A small sample demonstration of resilience cost-effectiveness results is presented in the form of statistical cost curves. The chapter concludes with a discussion of both methodological and public policy applications of the approach.