Does climate warming affect labour productivity in emerging economies?—Evidence from Chinese-listed firms
Xueqing Liu, Kunpeng Zhang, Yayun Ren
Abstract
In this study, we match the weather data at the prefecture-level city level in China with the data of listed firms in China, and examine the impact of high-temperature weather on the labour productivity and firm response strategies. We find that high-temperature weather is negatively correlated with labour productivity. The impact is more pronounced in Non-SOEs, heat-sensitive industries, and in the southern region. The additional analysis showed that firms can alleviate the negative impact of high-temperature weather by increasing employee compensation, and carrying out digital transformation. High-temperature weather prompts firms to reduce the number of blue-collar occupations and increase the number of white-collar occupations. This study highlights the urgency of the impact of current climate warming on emerging economies from the perspective of employees, enriches the cross-study of labour and climate economics, and provides suggestions for firms to alleviate the negative impact of high-temperature weather and improve production efficiency.