Time: November 13, 2019 (Wednesday), 12:00-13:30 

Venue: 1722, Rear Main Building, Beijing Normal University 

Speaker: Qiu Yun (Assistant Professor of Jinan University) 

Host: Li Yanan

Topic：Too Hot to Focus: The Mean and Distributional Effects of Heat on Labor Productivity

Abstract：We examine the effect of short-run temperature on labor productivity using a longitudinal dataset of Chinese professional archery athletes that covers all the competition records from 2010 to 2016. Exploiting random fluctuations of weather across competitions, we identify the effect of heat index in athlete-fixed effects models, finding an inverted U-shaped relationship between heat index and athlete productivity. Extreme heat also increases the spread of athlete scores by harming the lower ranked athletes more. Adaptation through accumulating competition experience is easier than improving performance in reducing the productivity loss from heat. Athletes trained in hotter areas or the competition province suffer significantly less impacts from extreme heat. Additionally, high temperatures do not have significant impacts on athlete dropout probability. Our findings have important implications for outdoor jobs relying on both physical strength and mental qualities and for developing countries with many outdoor or migrant workers.

Introduction to the speaker 

Qiu Yun is an assistant professor at the Institute of Economics and Society, Jinan University. He received her bachelor's degree from Peking University and his PhD from Ohio State University. His research interests include environmental economics.  His thesis was published in environmental Economics and Management (JEEM) and other academic journals.