Extreme Weather and Complaints: Evidence from Chinese Netizens

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between extreme temperature and online complaints to local government officials. We show that the number of complaints significantly increases by 11.1% on extremely hot days relative to the benchmark temperature. Such effect is most pronounced on the day of extreme weather conditions and muted immediately after the extreme weather day. Among all the complaint areas, we find that 28.6% of the increase in complaints on hot days is related to public service, 42.8% to urban construction, 21.4% to noise, and 7.2% to safety. Moreover, we reveal that the primary motivators of increased complaints on hot days are not likely to be psychological factors; instead, the complaints are more likely to be associated with inadequate provision of public facilities to cope with extreme weather and inadequate management of other environmental disamenities caused by extreme temperature.