Who gets hit first and who recovers last? Evidence from Indian Coastal Flood Shock

Catastrophic floods directly risk 1.8 billion lives worldwide, most of whom are from East and South Asia. How do extreme floods reshape paid labor outcomes? To answer this, I focus on a 1-in-100 year flood event in India. I first combine Sentinel-1 SAR with JRC Global Surface Water dataset to generate flood map. Using information from this map in various rounds of periodic labor force surveys, I estimate gender-specific dynamic effects of the flood shock. Key results show that men experienced short-lived reduction in their employment while women faced a delayed but persistent decline in their working hours. Men suffered most in secondary sector and increased their participation in primary sector. Women were hit hardest in the tertiary sector. Such sectoral impacts could be attributable to disruptions in infrastructure and physical capital. Moreover, marital status and dependency burden further shape the gender differential effects of the extreme flood event. Results remain robust under alternative treatment definitions.