Air Pollution and the Labor Market: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke

@article{Borgschulte2022AirPA,
  title={Air Pollution and the Labor Market: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke},
  author={Mark Borgschulte and David Molitor and Eric Yongchen Zou},
  journal={SSRN Electronic Journal},
  year={2022}
}
We estimate labor market responses to transient air pollution events using a novel linkage of satellite images of wildfire smoke plumes to pollution monitor data and labor market outcomes in the United States. Smoke exposure reduces earnings in both the year of exposure and the following year, lowers labor force participation, and increases Social Security claiming and payments. With an average of 17.7 days of annual smoke exposure per person, earnings losses sum to 1.26 percent of annual labor… 
View via Publisher
docs.iza.org
14 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
6
Methods Citations
1
Results Citations
2

14 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

A Causal Concentration-Response Function for Air Pollution: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke *
A central debate in countries with good environmental quality is the benefits of additional environmental regulations when further abatement is very costly. We provide the first causal estimates of…
Orange Skies: An Assessment of Wildfire Smoke Exposure in the United States
Air quality in the United States has improved substantially over the last few decades. However, there are concerns that climate change may undermine this progress through an increase in the incidence…
Open configuration options Exposure or Income? The Unequal Effects of Pollution on Daily Labor Supply
We use high-frequency data on fine particulate matter air pollution (PM 2.5) at the locality level to study the effects of high pollution on labor supply decisions and hospitalizations for…
Labor Share in the Air: Who Bears More Production Efficiency Loss of Air Pollution?
This paper provides a nationwide casual estimation of air pollution on labor share for the manufacturing industry in China from 1998 to 2015. Using changes in the annual intensity of thermal…
The Impact of Car Pollution on Infant and Child Health: Evidence from Emissions Cheating
Car exhaust is a major source of air pollution, but little is known about its impacts on population health. We exploit the dispersion of emissions-cheating diesel cars - which secretly polluted up to…
Ashes to Ashes: The Lifelong Consequences of Early-Life Wildfire Exposure∗
This paper assesses the impact of in utero and early-childhood exposure to wildfire smoke on longevity as well as economic achievement, human capital accumulation, and disability in mid-to-late…
Recent Increases in Air Pollution: Evidence and Implications for Mortality
After declining by 27.4 percent from 2009 to 2016, annual average fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the United States in counties with monitors increased by 5.7 percent between 2016 and 2018.…
When Externalities Collide: Influenza and Pollution
TLDR
Using regional and temporal variation in pollution and disease transmission, it is found exposure to more air pollution significantly increases influenza hospitalizations, and it is shown high influenza vaccine effectiveness neutralizes this relationship.
Wildfire and Visitation in U.S. National Parks
The recent rapid increase in wildfire activity due to climate change poses unprecedented challenges to park managers working to mitigate fire risk using limited resources. This paper estimates the…
Do Firms Experiencing More Wildfires Disclose More Wildfire Information in Their 10-Ks?
Wildfires pose a significant risk that threatens firm value. That risk may have risen significantly in recent years in light of record-breaking wildfires in the United States and elsewhere. It is an…
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 96 REFERENCES
A Causal Concentration-Response Function for Air Pollution: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke *
A central debate in countries with good environmental quality is the benefits of additional environmental regulations when further abatement is very costly. We provide the first causal estimates of…
Valuing mortality impacts of smoke exposure from major southern California wildfires
The hidden cost of wildfires: Economic valuation of health effects of wildfire smoke exposure in Southern California
Air Quality and Early-Life Mortality: Evidence from Indonesia's Wildfires
Smoke from massive wildfires blanketed Indonesia in late 1997. This paper examines the impact that this air pollution (particulate matter) had on fetal, infant, and child mortality. Exploiting the…
Exposures and behavioral responses to wildfire smoke
The impacts of environmental change on human outcomes often depend on local exposures and behavioral responses that are challenging to observe with traditional administrative or sensor data. We show…
As the Wind Blows: The Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution on Mortality
  • Michael L. Anderson
  • Environmental Science, Economics
    Journal of the European Economic Association
  • 2020
There is strong evidence that short-run fluctuations in air pollution negatively impact infant health and contemporaneous adult health, but there is less evidence on the causal link between long-term…
Severe Air Pollution and Labor Productivity: Evidence from Industrial Towns in China
We examine day-to-day fluctuations in worker-level output at two manufacturing sites in China. Ambient fine-particle (PM2.5) pollution is severe but significantly variable, largely due to exogenous…
Valuing morbidity effects of wildfire smoke exposure from the 2007 Southern California wildfires
The Effect of Pollution on Labor Supply: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Mexico City
The Impact of Pollution on Worker Productivity
TLDR
This paper finds robust evidence that ozone levels well below federal air quality standards have a significant impact on productivity: a 10 ppb decrease in ozone concentrations increases worker productivity by 4.2 percent.
...
...