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Too polluted to work? The gendered correlates of air pollution on hours worked

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  • Guillermo Montt

    (International Labour Office)

Abstract

Air pollution affects workers’ ability to work by damaging their own health, but also by damaging the health of their dependents. This paper draws on 20 years of air pollution and employment data from Santiago, Chile, a highly polluted metropolis, particularly in fall and winter months. The paper finds that though air pollution is not associated to a reduction in overall hours worked, it does so for women and particularly for women with children. Weeks with pollution at 100 μg/m3, common for Santiago, see double the gender difference in working hours. It is hypothesised that children, unable to go to school, must stay home and cared for. These findings suggest that air pollution may contribute to gender inequality through the gendered-biased distribution of care responsibilities. Pollution brings to evidence gender inequalities in care and, given the gendered nature of care and the geographic distribution of pollution, may contribute to enhance gender and geographic labour market inequalities. Environmental policy may serve to enhance gender equality as well.

Suggested Citation

  • Guillermo Montt, 2018. "Too polluted to work? The gendered correlates of air pollution on hours worked," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:izalbr:v:7:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1186_s40172-018-0067-6
    DOI: 10.1186/s40172-018-0067-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Felix Holub & Laura Hospido & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2020. "Urban Air Pollution and Sick Leaves: Evidence From Social Security Data," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_241, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    2. Han, Ahram & Kim, Taejong & Ten, Gi Khan & Wang, Shun, 2023. "Air pollution and gender imbalance in labor supply responses: Evidence from South Korea," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Edoardo Porto & Joanna Kopinska & Alessandro Palma, 2021. "Labor market effects of dirty air. Evidence from administrative data," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 887-921, October.
    4. Singh, Prachi & Dey, Sagnik, 2021. "Crop burning and forest fires: Long-term effect on adolescent height in India," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Djoumessi, Berenger Tiague, 2022. "Air Pollution, Avoidance Behavior and Labor Supply: Evidence from the United States," SocArXiv czpf4, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Air pollution; Hours worked; Health; Care; Gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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