Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2018
Capstone Advisor
Perry Singleton
Capstone Major
Economics
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities | Economics | Education | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
Abstract
Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Southeast region of the United States in late August of 2005 and is considered the most catastrophic natural disaster in US history. Many argue that the federal government response was implemented too late and was insufficient to lift the residents of New Orleans, a city plagued by racial income and employment gaps, out of a dire situation. This paper examines the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina by analyzing CPS data to determine how the earnings and employment of different groups of evacuees differed from non-evacuees. The findings show a difference between the employment-population ratio, employment rate, and weekly earnings of white and minority evacuees. They also support prior research that found evacuees to earn less and work less than counterparts unaffected by Katrina. Finally, this paper examines the racial income gap of New Orleans in the years following Hurricane Katrina and finds that the family income difference between whites and blacks increased after the storm.
Recommended Citation
Putnam, Kyle, "Determinants of Employment and Earnings for Hurricane Katrina Evacuees" (2018). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 1203.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1203
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
