IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecorec/v98y2022is1p1-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour Market Effects of Bushfires and Floods in Australia: A Gendered Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Josiah Hickson
  • Joseph Marshan

Abstract

We study the labour market effects of bushfires and floods within Australia over the past two decades, focusing on gender as a determinant of vulnerability. Whilst floods unambiguously increased the labour supply of both genders (creating around 13,500 jobs per year), the likelihood of female employment is particularly vulnerable to bushfires, falling by 1.6 percentage points (or around 5,000 jobs per year). This effect is partially explained by industry sector, with bushfires lifting overall male employment through industries including mining and transport, while reducing more female‐dominated services sector participation. We also examine intrahousehold dynamics, finding strong evidence for an ‘added worker’ effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Josiah Hickson & Joseph Marshan, 2022. "Labour Market Effects of Bushfires and Floods in Australia: A Gendered Perspective," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(S1), pages 1-23, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:98:y:2022:i:s1:p:1-23
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-4932.12688
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4932.12688
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-4932.12688?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kirchberger, Martina, 2017. "Natural disasters and labor markets," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 40-58.
    2. Nielsen-Pincus, Max & Moseley, Cassandra & Gebert, Krista, 2014. "Job growth and loss across sectors and time in the western US: The impact of large wildfires," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 199-206.
    3. Gema Zamarro & María J. Prados, 2021. "Gender differences in couples’ division of childcare, work and mental health during COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 11-40, March.
    4. Jeffrey A. Groen & Mark J. Kutzbach & Anne E. Polivka, 2020. "Storms and Jobs: The Effect of Hurricanes on Individuals’ Employment and Earnings over the Long Term," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(3), pages 653-685.
    5. Yu Xiao, 2011. "Local Economic Impacts Of Natural Disasters," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 804-820, October.
    6. Ariel R. Belasen & Solomon W. Polachek, 2008. "How Hurricanes Affect Wages and Employment in Local Labor Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 49-53, May.
    7. Enarson, Elaine., 2000. "Gender and natural disasters," ILO Working Papers 993439993402676, International Labour Organization.
    8. Ashenfelter, Orley, 1980. "Unemployment as Disequilibrium in a Model of Aggregate Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 547-564, April.
    9. J. Ignacio García‐Pérez & Sílvio Rendon, 2020. "Family job search and wealth: The added worker effect revisited," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(4), pages 1431-1459, November.
    10. Tatyana Deryugina & Laura Kawano & Steven Levitt, 2018. "The Economic Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Its Victims: Evidence from Individual Tax Returns," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 202-233, April.
    11. Belasen, Ariel R. & Polachek, Solomon, 2008. "How Hurricanes Affect Employment and Wages in Local Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 3407, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Justin Gallagher & Daniel Hartley, 2017. "Household Finance after a Natural Disaster: The Case of Hurricane Katrina," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 199-228, August.
    13. Jacob Mincer, 1962. "Labor Force Participation of Married Women: A Study of Labor Supply," NBER Chapters, in: Aspects of Labor Economics, pages 63-105, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Tatyana Deryugina & David Molitor, 2020. "Does When You Die Depend on Where You Live? Evidence from Hurricane Katrina," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(11), pages 3602-3633, November.
    15. Enarson, Elaine., 2000. "Gender and natural disasters," ILO Working Papers 995164758602676, International Labour Organization.
    16. Tatyana Deryugina, 2017. "The Fiscal Cost of Hurricanes: Disaster Aid versus Social Insurance," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 168-198, August.
    17. W J Wouter Botzen & Olivier Deschenes & Mark Sanders, 2019. "The Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters: A Review of Models and Empirical Studies," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(2), pages 167-188.
    18. Bradley Ewing & Jamie Kruse & Mark Thompson, 2009. "Twister! Employment responses to the 3 May 1999 Oklahoma City tornado," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(6), pages 691-702.
    19. Jeffrey Groen & Anne Polivka, 2010. "Going home after Hurricane Katrina: Determinants of return migration and changes in affected areas," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(4), pages 821-844, November.
    20. Boustan, Leah Platt & Kahn, Matthew E. & Rhode, Paul W. & Yanguas, Maria Lucia, 2020. "The effect of natural disasters on economic activity in US counties: A century of data," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    21. Simon Franklin & Julien Labonne, 2019. "Economic Shocks and Labor Market Flexibility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(1), pages 171-199.
    22. Xiaodong Gong, 2011. "The Added Worker Effect for Married Women in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 87(278), pages 414-426, September.
    23. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2012. "Temperature Shocks and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 66-95, July.
    24. repec:ilo:ilowps:343999 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Solomon M. Hsiang & Amir S. Jina, 2014. "The Causal Effect of Environmental Catastrophe on Long-Run Economic Growth: Evidence From 6,700 Cyclones," NBER Working Papers 20352, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Ariel R. Belasen & Solomon W. Polachek, 2009. "How Disasters Affect Local Labor Markets: The Effects of Hurricanes in Florida," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(1).
    27. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:103-204 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Popova, Olga, 2024. "Natural Disasters and Acceptance of Intimate Partner Violence: The Global Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 17172, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Apurba Roy & Ilan Noy, 2023. "Impact of extratropical cyclones, floods, and wildfires on firms’ financial performance in New Zealand," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 25(4), pages 493-574, October.
    3. Magnusson, Leandro M. & Roth, Sebastian, 2024. "Trust, risk, and gender: Evidence from the Black Saturday Fires in Victoria, Australia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 21-39.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philippe Kabore & Nicholas Rivers & Catherine Deri Armstrong, 2023. "Natural disasters and economic performance: Evidence from the Slave Lake wildfire," Working Papers 2301E Classification-D14,, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    2. Johar, Meliyanni & Johnston, David W. & Shields, Michael A. & Siminski, Peter & Stavrunova, Olena, 2022. "The economic impacts of direct natural disaster exposure," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 26-39.
    3. Pelli, Martino & Tschopp, Jeanne & Bezmaternykh, Natalia & Eklou, Kodjovi M., 2023. "In the eye of the storm: Firms and capital destruction in India," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    4. Barattieri, Alessandro & Borda, Patrice & Brugnoli, Alberto & Pelli, Martino & Tschopp, Jeanne, 2023. "The short-run, dynamic employment effects of natural disasters: New insights from Puerto Rico," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    5. Matteo Coronese & Federico Crippa & Francesco Lamperti & Francesca Chiaromonte & Andrea Roventini, 2023. "Raided by the storm: how three decades of thunderstorms shaped U.S. incomes and wages," LEM Papers Series 2023/40, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    6. Jerch, Rhiannon & Kahn, Matthew E. & Lin, Gary C., 2023. "Local public finance dynamics and hurricane shocks," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Rayamajhee, Veeshan & Paudel, Jayash, 2024. "The social behavior of immigrants during natural disasters: Lessons from the United States," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 614-633.
    8. Sultana Zeenat Fouzia & Jianhong Mu & Yong Chen, 2020. "Local labour market impacts of climate-related disasters: a demand-and-supply analysis," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 336-352, July.
    9. Graff Zivin, Joshua & Liao, Yanjun & Panassié, Yann, 2023. "How hurricanes sweep up housing markets: Evidence from Florida," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    10. Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude & Rahman, Muhammad Habibur & Ulubaşoğlu, Mehmet Ali, 2023. "Silver lining of the water: The role of government relief assistance in disaster recovery," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Stefan Borsky & Martin Jury, 2020. "The role of global supply chains in the transmission of weather induced production shocks," Graz Economics Papers 2020-13, University of Graz, Department of Economics.
    12. Jeffrey A. Groen† & Mark J. Kutzbach & Anne E. Polivka‡, 2015. "Storms and Jobs: The Effect of Hurricanes on Individuals’ Employment and Earnings over the Long Term," Working Papers 15-21r, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    13. Fujin Zhou & Wouter Botzen, 2021. "Firm Level Evidence of Disaster Impacts on Growth in Vietnam," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(2), pages 277-322, June.
    14. Veronica Leoni & David Boto-García, 2023. "The Effect of Natural Disasters on Hotel Demand, Supply and Labour Markets: Evidence from the La Palma Volcano Eruption," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(4), pages 755-780, December.
    15. Gignoux, Jérémie & Menéndez, Marta, 2016. "Benefit in the wake of disaster: Long-run effects of earthquakes on welfare in rural Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 26-44.
    16. Krzysztof Karbownik & Anthony Wray, 2019. "Long-Run Consequences of Exposure to Natural Disasters," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(3), pages 949-1007.
    17. Matteo Coronese & Davide Luzzati, 2022. "Economic impacts of natural hazards and complexity science: a critical review," LEM Papers Series 2022/13, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    18. Agustín Indaco & Francesc Ortega & Süleyman Taṣpınar, 2021. "Hurricanes, flood risk and the economic adaptation of businesses," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 557-591.
    19. Frijters, Paul & Johnston, David W. & Knott, Rachel & Torgler, Benno, 2021. "Resilience to Disaster: Evidence from Daily Wellbeing Data," IZA Discussion Papers 14220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Tatyana Deryugina, 2017. "The Fiscal Cost of Hurricanes: Disaster Aid versus Social Insurance," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 168-198, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:98:y:2022:i:s1:p:1-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.