The impact of tropical cyclones on informal employment: The case of Vietnam

I test how informality in the labor markets adjust to tropical cyclones, which represent exogenous, short-lived, localized, and large shocks. I leverage an individuallevel dataset extracted from the Labor Force Survey of Vietnam spanning over 24 quarters from 2013 to 2018. The results suggest that jobholders in affected areas do not face unemployment, but rather they move to less affected industries, and are more likely to take up informal employment. Thus, informal prevalence increases. Furthermore, there is no evidence of migration of the labor force.
Conference Papers of Vietnam Economist Annual Meeting 2022