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Disasters and technological upgrading measured by changes in demand for ICT labour: estimating the impacts with text

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  • Jorge Campos-González

    (University of Reading
    Millennium Nucleus for the Integrated Development of Territories, CEDIT)

Abstract

Extensive literature has studied the economic impact of disasters. However, specific impacts on labour markets have received less attention. Using a massive earthquake (> 8.0 Mw) that struck Chile in 2010 and proprietary data from a Chilean online job board (4136 job postings published between 2008 and 2012), we examine changes in demand for Information and Communications Technologies, ICT, related labour as a proxy for technological upgrading, by assuming that ICT and related technologies drive much of the technical change in production. We implement a structural topic model to discover and estimate the difference in the prevalence of ICT and Construction labour, among others. Our results show that ICT labour does not change. In contrast, Construction labour significantly differed after the disaster, suggesting that reconstruction activities led to employment differences. Our results suggest that there was no substantive technological replacement following the earthquake.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge Campos-González, 2025. "Disasters and technological upgrading measured by changes in demand for ICT labour: estimating the impacts with text," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 121(1), pages 911-957, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:121:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s11069-024-06863-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11069-024-06863-z
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour markets; Disasters; Technological upgrading; Creative destruction; ICT labour;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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