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

Guillermo Montt

doi:10.1186/s40172-018-0067-6

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.

Highlights

The environment and the world of work are tightly linked
4 Conclusions This paper draws on 20 years of systematic data collection on employment and air pollution to explore the link between air pollution and hours worked
On the aggregate, air pollution in the levels commonly observed in Santiago, Chile, does not reduce overall hours worked

Summary

Introduction

The environment and the world of work are tightly linked. Environmental degradation can, in the long term, hurt jobs through two channels. If the distribution of care for sick dependents relies on one group of workers, e.g. women, the effects of non-critical yet high air pollution levels on hours worked will fall disproportionately on this group. This indirect effect of air pollution on hours worked only affects individuals who combine paid work and care. This paper takes advantage of a continuous quarterly measurement of employment and daily measurement of pollutants in Santiago for 20 years It draws on the temporal and geographical variation to explore the gendered and care-related relationship between air pollution and hours worked

Data and methods

Results

Conclusions