Mahmud, Sakib and Barbier, Edward (2014): Are Private Defensive
Expenditures against Storm Damages Affected by Public Programs and Natural Barriers?
Three years ago, a U.S. National Academies committee recommended (in the report The Gathering
Storm) doubling federal investment in basic research in math, the physical sciences, and engineering while, at a minimum, protecting the health sciences
against inflation (the cost of which, in math, the physical sciences, and engineering, equals the amount by which the nation's
expenditure on health care increases every 7 weeks).