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… 
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14 Citations

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References

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