Tony will present his paper:

Money to Burn: Wildfire Insurance via Social Networks
with Emily Gallagher and Phil Mulder

Abstract:
Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular way to raise emergency funding after disasters. However, for victims of a recent major Colorado wildfire, we find that crowdfunding raised more support for high income and prime credit beneficiaries rather than helping the most vulnerable. Specifically, beneficiaries with income above $100,000 receive 40% more social network support on GoFundMe than beneficiaries with income below $50,000. High income households are also 13 percentage points more likely to have a crowdfunding campaign at all. The regressive nature of disaster crowdfunding is not due to less severe losses by financially vulnerable consumers, nor is it fully explained by the degree of online campaign sharing. Our findings highlight substantial disparities in social network insurance, which, as we show, likely exacerbate income inequalities in the recovery process.