1.

Given that the Philippines suffers from typhoons and other nasty storms, what investment
choices are private investors and government making to reduce risk exposure? Are private
and public investments complements or substitutes? (i.e Does national government
investment in infrastructure and World Bank investment in sea walls and other hard
infrastructure crowding out private self protection?)

Areas differ in their propensity to experience natural disasters. Exposure to disaster

risks can be reduced either through migration (i.e., self-protection) or through public
infrastructure investment (e.g., building seawalls). Using migration data from the 1920s
and 1930s, this paper studies how the population responded to disaster shocks in an
era of minimal public investment. We find that, on net, young men move away from
areas hit by tornados but are attracted to areas experiencing floods. Early efforts to
protect against future flooding, especially during the New Deal era of the late 1930s,
may have counteracted an individual migration response.

2. As human capital rises in this nation, is there evidence that the people are increasingly
successful in solving the problems that climate change and natural disasters pose?
3. 4. All developing nations are urbanizing. Does urbanization facilitate adaptation to natural
disaster risk? In my 2005 RESTAT paper and my 2010 book, I have argued that the
answer is yes. If a poor nation ends up with a large number of vulnerable people living in
close density, then this nation is at risk to suffer greatly from a spatial punch caused by a
storm but if this urbanization leads to greater income growth then this population can afford
risk mitigation measures (i.e higher quality housing , better diet and better hospitals and
water supply).

Note that I set this up as a micro economic investment problem. This is a different strategy
than the approach of researchers such as Prof. Sol Hsiang who study the impact of natural
disasters as a "macro economic" problem (see papers posted here). A young frontier
researcher would figure out how to reconcile the "macro findings" and the "micro findings"
and discuss general equilibrium effects such as the pricing of real estate across the affected
nation.

Now I have only mentioned the Philippines here but one development economist could
study every nation around the world and explore the same issues. Environmental and
urban economics in the developing world is a key research agenda.

http://greeneconomics.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-phd-microeconomics-research.html