RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Heat, Climate Control, and Worker Absences
JF Land Economics
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 223
OP 235
DO 10.3368/le.102.2.082724-0076R1
VO 102
IS 2
A1 Gupta, Ridhima
A1 Somanathan, Eswaran
YR 2026
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/102/2/223.abstract
AB Does heat increase the probability of missing work for formal-sector workers? We address this question by analyzing nearly three years of daily data on 274 employees across 86 locations of a large welding firm in India. We find that a 1°C rise in daily mean temperature increases the probability of missing work for workers without workplace climate control by 3.4% of the mean rate of absence. The same temperature increase decreases the probability of missing work by 2.5% relative to mean absenteeism for workers with climate control.