Who takes the hit? Gender differences in employment outcomes after disasters

We estimate the individual labor market outcomes in Indonesia using historical data to isolate the plausibly exogenous variation in local labor market conditions due to unexpected natural hazards. We find that men substitute labor away when there are more unanticipated disasters while women work more. These gender differences in employment elasticities are heterogeneous by land ownership and education. Results imply that improving women's educational attainment from no schooling to primary schooling is sufficient to close the gender gap in employment elasticities, allowing women to substitute away from work when the gains from participation are low.