Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/145161 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10027
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We investigate the effect of pollution on worker productivity in the service sector by focusing on two call centers in China. Using precise measures of each worker's daily output linked to daily measures of pollution and meteorology, we find that higher levels of air pollution decrease worker productivity by reducing the number of calls that workers complete each day. These results manifest themselves at commonly found levels of pollution in major cities throughout the developing and developed world, suggesting that these types of effects are likely to apply broadly. When decomposing these effects, we find that the decreases in productivity are explained by increases in time spent on breaks rather than the duration of phone calls. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that the negative impacts of pollution on productivity extend beyond physically demanding tasks to indoor, white-collar work.
Subjects: 
pollution
productivity
JEL: 
J22
J24
Q51
Q53
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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