IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rff/dpaper/dp-23-03.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Local are the Local Economic Impacts of Wildfires?

Author

Listed:
  • Walls, Margaret A.

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Wibbenmeyer, Matthew

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract

As large and damaging wildfires have increased in frequency in the western United States, the consequences of these events for local economies remain largely unknown. Studies of the effects of natural disasters on local economic growth have yielded mixed results, and few have examined wildfires—especially large and damaging wildfires. We investigate the local economic impacts of wildfires in the western United States using two empirical approaches, which rely on public county-level economic data and administrative-establishment-level data, respectively. Comparing findings with these two data sources allows us to investigate how local the local economic effects of wildfires are. We find no significant short- or long-run effects of major wildfires on county-level employment growth. However, when we analyze results closer to the actual fire locations, we find that job growth in the year of the fire declines by 1.3 percentage points, but rebounds after that with no significant long-run effect. When analyzed by industry, both approaches show a boost in employment growth in the construction sector, but the results for other sectors have some important differences.

Suggested Citation

  • Walls, Margaret A. & Wibbenmeyer, Matthew, 2023. "How Local are the Local Economic Impacts of Wildfires?," RFF Working Paper Series 23-03, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-23-03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rff.org/documents/3765/WP_23-03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    4. Asquith, Brian & Goswami, Sanjana & Neumark, David & Rodriguez-Lopez, Antonio, 2019. "U.S. job flows and the China shock," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 123-137.
    5. Eric Strobl, 2011. "The Economic Growth Impact of Hurricanes: Evidence from U.S. Coastal Counties," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 575-589, May.
    6. David Neumark & Junfu Zhang & Brandon Wall, 2007. "Employment Dynamics and Business Relocation: New Evidence from the National Establishment Time Series," Research in Labor Economics, in: Aspects of Worker Well-Being, pages 39-83, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    7. repec:eme:rlec11:s0147-9121(06)26002-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Keith Barnatchez & Leland D. Crane & Ryan A. Decker, 2017. "An Assessment of the National Establishment Time Series (NETS) Database," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-110, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Meltzer, Rachel & Ellen, Ingrid Gould & Li, Xiaodi, 2021. "Localized commercial effects from natural disasters: The case of Hurricane Sandy and New York City," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    11. 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.
    12. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2013. "Environment, Health, and Human Capital," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 689-730, September.
    13. Emek Basker & Javier Miranda, 2018. "Taken by storm: business financing and survival in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(6), pages 1285-1313.
    14. 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).
    15. Mark Borgschulte & David Molitor & Eric Yongchen Zou, 2024. "Air Pollution and the Labor Market: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1558-1575, November.
    16. 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.
    17. 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).
    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. Raphaelle G. Coulombe & Akhil Rao, 2023. "Fires and Local Labor Markets," Papers 2308.02739, arXiv.org.
    2. Xianru Han & Wenying Li & Haoluan Wang, 2024. "A Burning Issue: Wildfire Smoke Exposure, Retail Sales, and Demand for Adaptation in Healthcare," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(11), pages 3011-3039, November.

    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. Jerch, Rhiannon & Kahn, Matthew E. & Lin, Gary C., 2023. "Local public finance dynamics and hurricane shocks," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    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. 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).
    6. 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).
    7. 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).
    8. Ilan Noy & Eric Strobl, 2023. "Creatively Destructive Hurricanes: Do Disasters Spark Innovation?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(1), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Rushaine Goulbourne & Amir B. Ferreira Neto & Amanda Ross, 2024. "Do businesses “vote with their feet” Too? Examining firm mobility in response to hurricane risk," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(3), pages 945-978, October.
    10. Robert Reinhardt, 2022. "Shaking up Foreign Finance: FDI in a Post-Disaster World," Post-Print halshs-03908250, HAL.
    11. Robert Reinhardt, 2022. "Shaking up Foreign Finance: FDI in a Post-Disaster World," Working Papers halshs-03908250, HAL.
    12. Robert Reinhardt, 2022. "Shaking up Foreign Finance: FDI in a Post-Disaster World," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 22024, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    13. Robert Reinhardt, 2022. "Shaking up Foreign Finance: FDI in a Post-Disaster World," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-03908250, HAL.
    14. Meier, Sarah & Elliott, Robert J.R. & Strobl, Eric, 2023. "The regional economic impact of wildfires: Evidence from Southern Europe," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    15. 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.
    16. Brodeur, Abel & Yousaf, Hasin, 2022. "On the Economic Consequences of Mass Shootings," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1133, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    17. Siddhartha Biswas & Mallick Hossain & David Zink, 2023. "California Wildfires, Property Damage, and Mortgage Repayment," Working Papers 23-05, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    18. Emek Basker & Javier Miranda, 2014. "Taken by Storm: Business Financing, Survival, and Contagion in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," Working Papers 1406, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 23 Oct 2014.
    19. Marcel Henkel, Eunjee Kwon, Pierre Magontier, 2022. "The Unintended Consequences of Post-Disaster Policies for Spatial Sorting," Diskussionsschriften credresearchpaper37, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft - CRED.
    20. Raphaelle G. Coulombe & Akhil Rao, 2023. "Fires and Local Labor Markets," Papers 2308.02739, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:rff:dpaper:dp-23-03. 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: Resources for the Future (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rffffus.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.