Climate Change, Labor Market Frictions, and Economic Inequality: Workplace Health Risks Due to Extreme Temperature

Temperature stress – physical stress induced by excessive heat or cold – may affect cognitive performance, labor capacity, and workplace safety, suggesting that climate change might reduce earnings and job quality for many low-skilled workers. Could global warming, therefore, exacerbate economic inequality? And how resistant will companies be to implementing adaptive technologies, such as air conditioning and outdoor cooling stations, that could reduce the impacts of temperature stress? Environmental and labor economist R. Jisung Park will explore the implications of climate change and companies’ willingness or reluctance to adopt adaptive technologies on economic inequality. He will use weather data as well as data on worker injuries to better understand the relationship between local temperatures and workplace safety risk.