Séminaire

Air pollution and labor supply: Evidence from social security data

Ulrich Wagner (University of Mannheim)

7 novembre 2016, 11h00–12h15

Toulouse

Salle MS 001

Environment Economics Seminar

Résumé

We estimate the causal impact of air pollution on the incidence and duration of sickness leaves taken by a representative sample of employees affiliated to the social security system in Spain. Identification derives from day-to-day variation in air pollution concentrations to which the individuals in the sample are exposed in their place of residence. We compute local measures of air quality by interpolating geo-referenced data from almost 900 air quality monitoring stations in all of Spain. These monitoring stations measure and record, at least once per hour, the concentration of various air pollutants that are known to cause harm to human health in the form of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (SO2, NOx, PM10, CO and O3). We estimate a linear probability model that relates the event of a worker staying at home on a given day in 2009 because of a cardiovascular or respiratory disease to the air quality experienced at the place of residence, controlling for confounding factors such as weather, season and individual effects. Our study contributes new evidence on the impact of pollution on worker productivity. Felix Holub* Laura Hospido† Ulrich J. Wagner