Another first from the German based Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Last week’s paper showed a conclusive link between mental health in the elderly and wealth, the first study of its kind to prove a clear association. This week’s paper, again from researchers working for an IZA report, show a link between white-collar labor productivity and pollution.
Tom Chang, Joshua Graff Zivin, Tal Gross and Matthew Niedell from the universities of Southern California, California and Colombia respectively looked at call center worker productivity from Ctrip facilities in Shanghai and Nantong then tried to match up data with air quality in each location.
What they found was that not only did the level of pollution reduce productivity but that this loss of output got worse in line with rising pollution (as measured by the API) i.e. there was a linear relation between the intensity of pollution and the rate of productivity drop off. It seems white collar types end up taking more breaks when pollution increases rather than doing their designated tasks more slowly.
The researchers suggest this finding has wider implications than for just China. Many cities in the developed world (they note Los Angeles and Phoenix) still suffer bouts of high API levels and the loss of productivity caused by pollution could therefore run into the many billions of dollars worldwide. In China’s case they suggest a 10-point API reduction could be worth as much as U$2.2bn to the economy annually.
Planners are more likely to address environmental issues if it’s effects are dollars and cents quantifiable; this work is an import contribution in this regard.
You can access the paper in full via this link Pollution’s Effect on Worker Productivity
Happy Sunday.