Open AccessAir pollution lowers high skill public sector worker productivity in China
Author(s) -
Matthew E. Kahn,
Pei Li
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
environmental research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.37
H-Index - 124
ISSN - 1748-9326
DOI - 10.1088/1748-9326/ab8b8c
Subject(s) - productivity , china , workforce , pollution , air pollution , air quality index , government (linguistics) , natural resource economics , business , population , work (physics) , economic growth , agricultural economics , economics , geography , environmental health , engineering , meteorology , medicine , mechanical engineering , ecology , linguistics , chemistry , philosophy , archaeology , organic chemistry , biology
China’s urbanites continue to be exposed to high levels of air pollution. Such pollution exposure raises mortality risk, lowers the day-to-day sentiment of the population and lowers outdoor worker productivity. Using a unique set of data for Chinese judges, we document that local air pollution also lowers the productivity of high skilled government officials who work indoors. Our new evidence on the effects of air pollution highlights both the challenge that pollution poses for quality of life and workforce productivity and indicates that the Chinese urban elites gain co-benefits when their cities burn less fossil fuel.