Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Publication Title
Environment and Development Economics
Abstract
Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, such as drought and heat waves. In this paper, we assess the impact of drought and high temperatures on the employment outcomes of working-age individuals in South Africa between 2008 and 2017. We merge high-resolution weather data with detailed individual-level survey data on labor market outcomes, and estimate causal impacts using a fixed effects framework. We find that increases in the occurrence of drought reduce overall employment. These effects are concentrated in the tertiary sector, amongst informal workers, and in provinces with a higher reliance on tourism. Taken together, our results suggest that the impacts of climate change will be felt unequally by South Africa’s workers.
Keywords
employment, unemployment, climate change, drought, South Africa
Volume
28
First Page
285
Last Page
305
DOI
10.1017/S1355770X22000237
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
© The Author(s) Licensed to Smith College and distributed CC-BY under the Smith College Faculty Open Access Policy.
Recommended Citation
Brookes Gray, Harriet Margaret; Taraz, Vis; and Halliday, Simon, "The Impact of Weather Shocks on Employment Outcomes: Evidence from South Africa" (2023). Environmental Science and Policy: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/env_facpubs/22
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.