In 1990 California established a state insurance program titled the California Residential Earthquake Recovery Fund. This research deals with the impacts of this state- mandated, non-catastrophic earthquake insurance program on the propensity to purchase voluntary, catastrophic earthquake insurance. The research continues a longitudinal study of a sample of home owners and will monitor changes both in the behavior of individuals and their changing perception of the earthquake hazard. The study will address such specific issues as the impacts of the combination of prior attitudes, direct experience with an earthquake, and mandatory coverage of a small portion of the home value at risk on the adoption of catastrophic earthquake implications for earthquake hazards reduction throughout the country and the results will be made available to relevant decision makers.
