Seminar Series: Jeffrey Groen, Research Economist, Bureau of Labor Statistics
When |
Feb 05, 2014
from 02:30 PM to 03:30 PM |
---|---|
Where | 0124B Cole Student Activities Building |
Contact Name | Tiffany Pittman |
Contact Phone | 301-405-6403 |
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About the Talk
We study the responsiveness of individuals’ employment and earnings to the damages and disruption caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005. Our analysis is based on individual-level survey and administrative data that tracks workers over time - from 2 years before the storms to 7 years after the storms. We estimate models that compare outcomes for individuals who resided (at the time of the storms) in storm-affected areas with individuals who resided in an unaffected control region along the Atlantic coast. Our estimates indicate that the storms reduced employment in the short term, with a gradual recovery over 4 years. In terms of earnings among those employed, we find short-term losses but long-term gains. We find that the short-term losses in employment were larger for individuals who had lower skills or lower earnings prior to the storms. We also find that individuals who resided in or worked in Census blocks that experienced major damage had the largest negative effects on employment and earnings, especially in the short term.
About the Speaker
Jeffrey Groen is a research economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. His research is in labor economics and the economics of education. Research areas have included college education and labor mobility, doctoral education and the academic workforce, and measurement issues with employment statistics. His previous research on Hurricane Katrina examined the demographic characteristics of evacuees, the short-term effects of the storm on labor-market outcomes, and return migration of evacuees. His research has been published in journals such as American Economic Review, Demography, Journal of Public Economics, and Economics of Education Review. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.