空气污染、雾霾天与工作时长

摘要

This study investigates the impact of air pollution on hours worked in Chile using a nationally representative sample. We construct downwind smoke plumes originating from wildfires and combine them with the presence of thermal inversions to causally identify the effect of air pollution. Our findings reveal a 2.2% reduction in hours worked due to increased fine particulate matter from an extra smoky day. Our study suggests that focusing solely on labor productivity underestimates the economic cost of air pollution by 18–43%. The effect is more pronounced for female workers as well as workers engaged in outdoor tasks. We show a high degree of heterogeneity in the effect across rural and urban areas. In urban areas, high-income workers experience a larger impact of air pollution, but not in rural areas.