The Immediate and Lasting Effects of Heat Waves On Workers (with H. Klauber and N. Koch)
This paper examines how prolonged exposure to heat affects the labor force's ability to work in the short and long run. Linking administrative public health insurance records for one-third of the German working-age population to the quasi-experimental occurrence of heat waves, we provide the first comprehensive characterization of the occupation-specific heterogeneity in how heat-induced health damages materialize in decreased labor supply, and its distributional implications. An average hot day increases the number of new sick leave cases, and the effects build with prolonged heat. After seven consecutive days of heat exposure, the impact is roughly three times greater than on the first day. Workers who are already disadvantaged in terms of their income and working conditions are more vulnerable to heat stress. Those who are more flexible in scheduling and adjusting their working hours are less at risk. Our results also reveal a longer-term decrease in labor supply in the years following heat wave exposure, and suggest sustained increases in expenditures for healthcare.
Polluted Job Search: The Impact of Poor Air Quality on Reservation Wages (with M. Bogaard, S. Künn and J. Palacios)
This paper investigates the impact of air pollution on reservation wages. We use rich survey data on unemployed job seekers in Germany and exploit variation in individual exposure to fine particulate matter (PM10) based on the quasi-random allocation of interview slots to individuals. Our results show that an increase in PM10 by one standard deviation (corresponding to 12 μg/m3) reduces the reservation wage by approximately 1.2%. We further provide evidence that PM10 pollution decreases job seekers' search effort, risk tolerance and patience, which serve as potential mechanisms through which PM10 exposure negatively affects the reservation wage of unemployed job seekers.