Pollution and Politician Productivity: The Effect of PM on MPs

Heyes, Anthony; Rivers, Nicholas; Schaufele, Brandon

doi:10.3368/le.95.2.157

Cited by 30 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Results are not driven by seasonal patterns of municipal activity as all models control for an extensive array of time effects, while estimates are invariant to perturbations in the model specification. The magnitude of the effect comparable that identified in recent research exploring the effect of pollution on the productivity of indoors workers(Chang et al 2019, Heyes et al 2019.…”

supporting

confidence: 81%

“…When accounting for biases introduced by omitted variables and measurement The reported estimates capture the overall effect of PM2.5 on the extensive and the intensive margins. Specifically, air pollution may reduce workers' labor supply increasing absenteeism (Hanna and Oliva 2015), and lower their in-work performance and productivity (Chang et al 2019, Heyes et al 2019. Given the data available, the relative importance of the two effects cannot be assessed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Graff Zivin and Neidell (2012) and Lichter et al (2017) find that exposure to common pollutants has substantial and statistically significant negative effects on the productivity of outdoors workers. Heyes et al (2019) show that greater PM2.5 concentrations are related to lower speech performance by Canadian Members of Parliament. Chang et al (2016) show that the productivity of pear packers decreases with nearby concurrent PM2.5 concentrations, while Chang et al (2019) find a similar relationship for call center workers in China suggesting an immediate effect of pollution on output.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

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Ambient PM2.5 influences productive activities in public sector bureaucracies

Kountouris

2020

Environ. Res. Commun.

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Fine particles (PM2.5) can penetrate buildings through ventilation and air conditioning systems, exposing indoors workers to pollution levels similar to those prevailing outdoors. This letter investigates the immediate influence of fine particle pollution on the productive activity of local government bureaucracies, linking novel data on the daily output of local governments in municipalities of the Athens metropolitan area, Greece, to PM2.5 levels recorded nearby. To address biases introduced by omitted variables and measurement error, I use the plausibly exogenous variation introduced by the basin's horizontal ventilation, instrumenting PM2.5 levels with local wind strength. Estimates suggest a statistically and quantitatively significant negative effect from PM2.5 on the output of public administrations. Increasing PM2.5 levels by 1% decreases the activity proxy by around 0.25%. Results point to the influence PM2.5 can have on activities that are mentally but not physically demanding and suggest that costs from PM2.5 will increase with the share of global income produced by office workers.

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supporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

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Ambient PM2.5 influences productive activities in public sector bureaucracies

Kountouris

2020

Environ. Res. Commun.

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“… 2019 ; Heyes et al. 2019 ). To verify this further, we augmented out model with daily pollution controls.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Much Will Climate Change Reduce Productivity in a High-Technology Supply Chain? Evidence from Silicon Wafer Manufacturing

Chen,

Fonseca,

Heyes

et al. 2023

Environ Resource Econ

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The frequency of hot days in much of the world is increasing. What is the impact of high temperatures on productivity? Can technology-based adaptation mitigate such effects of climate change? We provide some answers to these questions by examining how high outdoor temperatures affect a high-technology, precision manufacturing setting. Exploiting individual-level data on the quantity and quality of work done across 35,190 worker-shifts in a leading NYSE-listed silicon wafer maker in China, we evidence a negative effect of outdoor heat on productivity. The effects are large: in our preferred linear specification, an increase in wet bulb temperature of $$10\,^{\circ }$$ 10 ∘ C causes a reduction in output of 8.3%. Temperature effects exist even though the manufacturer’s work-spaces are indoors and protected by high-quality climate control systems. Results are not driven by extreme weather events and are robust to alternative modelling approaches. They illustrate the potential future adverse economic effects of climate change in most of the industrialised world.

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“…For instance, there is evidence that exposure to air contaminants can influence the human brain by promoting inflammatory responses in sense organs while using the blood stream to directly interfere with the chemical composition of the central nervous system (Beurel and Jope, 2014; Block and Calderón‐Garcidueñas, 2009). Examples of these effects range from reduced test grades (Lavy et al., 2014) to changes in the speech quality of Canadian parliamentary members (Heyes et al., 2019). In extreme scenarios, prolonged exposure can even lead to an increased risk of dementia (Bishop et al., 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air pollution and the productivity of high‐skill labor: evidence from court hearings*

Sarmiento

2022

Scandinavian J Economics

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The influence of air pollution on cognitive productivity is a highly relevant and not fully understood economic issue. This study provides evidence of an adverse effect of exposure on the productivity of Mexican judicial workers. The empirical strategy approximates productivity with the length of the hearing and infers causality through instrumental variable panel models. Results show that air pollution decreases the productivity of judicial workers. For instance, increasing particulate matter by 10 units raises the length of hearings by 6.7 percent. Back‐of‐the‐envelope calculations suggest that if particulate matter had been ten units lower, the sample of courthouses would have gained 81,712 minutes or roughly 56 work‐days between 2015 and 2017.

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Pollution and Politician Productivity: The Effect of PM on MPs

Cited by 30 publications

References 21 publications

Ambient PM2.5 influences productive activities in public sector bureaucracies

Ambient PM2.5 influences productive activities in public sector bureaucracies

How Much Will Climate Change Reduce Productivity in a High-Technology Supply Chain? Evidence from Silicon Wafer Manufacturing

Air pollution and the productivity of high‐skill labor: evidence from court hearings*

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