June 2008

IZA DP No. 3544: The Re-Building Effect of Hurricanes: Evidence from Employment in the US Construction Industry

Eric Strobl, Frank Walsh

We examine the impact of hurricane strikes on the construction industry in US counties. To this end we use a measure of hurricane destruction derived from a wind field model and historical hurricane track data and employ this within a dynamic labour demand framework. Our results show that destruction due to hurricanes causes on average an increase in country level employment in construction of a little over 25 per cent.