Gendered effects of community bereavement on time use: Evidence from the Sewol ferry disaster

Abstract

While disasters affect local economy and residents beyond immediate casualties, there is limited evidence on these indirect effects. This study utilizes the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster as a natural experiment to examine the effects of community bereavement on time use. We compare time use before and after the disaster by examining changes both within neighborhoods with a high concentration of victims and between these neighborhoods and the rest of South Korea. On average, in response to the disaster, males in the affected area reallocated market work to leisure, while females shifted from home production to market work and to leisure activities not involving a TV. The temporal evolution of these effects suggests that they persisted throughout the sample period, which lasted 65 days post-disaster.