Local Labor Market Conditions and Adaptation to Climate Change: The Role of Workers’ Outside Options
◈ 주 제 : Local Labor Market Conditions and Adaptation to Climate Change: The Role of Workers’ Outside Options
◈ 발표자 : Jisung Park (Upenn)
◈ 일 시 : 2026년 3월 11일 수요일 16:30 ~ 17:45
◈ 장 소 : 16동(혁신센터) 338호
◈ 주 관 : 경제학부, 경제연구소 한국경제혁신센터, SSK, BK21
- 본 세미나는 경제학부 BK21 관련 세미나 참석으로 인정됩니다.
경제학부 대학원생 중 세미나 참석 인정을 받기를 원하시는 학생은 세미나 종료 후 세미나실 내에 위치한 참석 명단을 기재해 주시기 바랍니다.
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Abstract
We provide the first evidence that worker bargaining position influences firms’ investments in adaptation to extreme temperatures. Leveraging administrative data on 15 million injury claims and granular information on workers’ outside options in over 17,000 local occupational labor markets, we find that improvements in outside option wages lead workers and firms to take actions that significantly mitigate heat-induced workplace injuries. Days above 90◦F increase injuries by 7%; plausibly exogenous changes in outside option wages moderate this relationship, such that a one standard deviation increase in wages reduces the heat-injury relationship by 32 to 45%. The effect persists in predominantly indoor occupations, consistent with technically feasible adaptations being turned “on” or “off” depending on potentially conflicting economic incentives. In contrast, we find no significant difference in the effect via commonly used revealed preference approaches, including estimating heterogeneity across average incomes or average climates. Our findings suggest that localized labor market dynamics play an important role in shaping workplace responses to environmental shocks and the incidence of adaptation costs between workers and employers.