Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities

This paper examines the effect of air pollution on labor supply in Lima, Peru. We focus on fine particulate matter (PM2.5), an important pollutant for health according to the medical literature, and show that moderate levels of pollution reduce hours worked for working adults. Our research design ta...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Aragon, Fernando M., Miranda, Juan Jose, Oliva, Paulina
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Elsevier 2017
Subjects:	LABOR SUPPLY AIR POLLUTION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES CAREGIVING
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27239

id	okr-10986-27239
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-272392021-05-25T10:54:39Z Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities Aragon, Fernando M. Miranda, Juan Jose Oliva, Paulina LABOR SUPPLY AIR POLLUTION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES CAREGIVING This paper examines the effect of air pollution on labor supply in Lima, Peru. We focus on fine particulate matter (PM2.5), an important pollutant for health according to the medical literature, and show that moderate levels of pollution reduce hours worked for working adults. Our research design takes advantage of rich household panel data in labor outcomes to address omitted variables. This research design allows us to investigate whether the response to air pollution is non-linear. We find that the effect of moderate pollution levels on hours worked is concentrated among households with susceptible dependents, i.e., small children and elderly adults; while the highest concentrations affect all households. This suggests that caregiving is likely a mechanism linking air pollution to labor supply at moderate levels. We provide further evidence of this mechanism using data on children morbidity. Finally, we find no evidence of intra-household attenuation behavior. For instance, there is no re-allocation of labor across household members, and earnings decrease with air pollution. 2017-06-15T22:28:49Z 2017-06-15T22:28:49Z 2017-11 Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 0095-0696 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27239 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Elsevier Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Latin America & Caribbean Peru
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	LABOR SUPPLY AIR POLLUTION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES CAREGIVING
spellingShingle	LABOR SUPPLY AIR POLLUTION DEVELOPING COUNTRIES CAREGIVING Aragon, Fernando M. Miranda, Juan Jose Oliva, Paulina Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities
geographic_facet	Latin America & Caribbean Peru
description	This paper examines the effect of air pollution on labor supply in Lima, Peru. We focus on fine particulate matter (PM2.5), an important pollutant for health according to the medical literature, and show that moderate levels of pollution reduce hours worked for working adults. Our research design takes advantage of rich household panel data in labor outcomes to address omitted variables. This research design allows us to investigate whether the response to air pollution is non-linear. We find that the effect of moderate pollution levels on hours worked is concentrated among households with susceptible dependents, i.e., small children and elderly adults; while the highest concentrations affect all households. This suggests that caregiving is likely a mechanism linking air pollution to labor supply at moderate levels. We provide further evidence of this mechanism using data on children morbidity. Finally, we find no evidence of intra-household attenuation behavior. For instance, there is no re-allocation of labor across household members, and earnings decrease with air pollution.
format	Journal Article
author	Aragon, Fernando M. Miranda, Juan Jose Oliva, Paulina
author_facet	Aragon, Fernando M. Miranda, Juan Jose Oliva, Paulina
author_sort	Aragon, Fernando M.
title	Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities
title_short	Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities
title_full	Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities
title_fullStr	Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities
title_full_unstemmed	Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities
title_sort	particulate matter and labor supply : the role of caregiving and non-linearities
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2017
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27239
_version_	1764463969938964480

Particulate Matter and Labor Supply : The Role of Caregiving and Non-linearities

Similar Items