Building on first-hand telephone and street survey data collected through a previous project on New Orleans businesses after Katrina, this project develops models to quantify determinants of the decisions by businesses to return to their prior location after a disaster. Special attention is given to the spatial relations between a business, its neighborhood, and businesses located nearby. Specifically, this project has four goals: (1) Extend current spatial statistical methods to address the ordinal nature of survey data information pertaining to important dependent variables that exhibit spatial dependence in underlying decisions. (2) Use estimates and inferences from the statistical models to explore the relation between business recovery and various disaster related problems that have confronted businesses. (3) Compare alternative spatial strategies for aid distribution to examine approaches that will maximize recovery. (4) Produce estimates and inferences regarding optimal recovery approaches and measures of recovery potential for other locations that will generalize findings for the analysis of disasters in other locations. The project is the first attempt to formally model business connectivity and interdependence in decision making as it pertains to decisions about disaster recovery. The research has the potential to augment both methodological and substantive knowledge. Findings from this research will have major implications for planning, mitigation, and the recovery of business in New Orleans as well as in other sites of future disasters.
