Insurance, Uncertainty, and Health
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (CST)
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Chairs:
Brad Hershbein, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research - David Wasser, U.S. Census Bureau
Too Hot to Work: What are the Economic Effects of Rest Breaks on the Labor Productivity of Workers
Abstract
"Too hot" working environments are not just a question of comfort, but a concern for health protection and the ability to successfully complete their work assignments. In response to the conditions of working in heat, a worker's response would be to slow down work or limit the working hours, which could impact labor productivity. Industrial hygienists advocate more rest breaks because the workers in the lowest income-bracket work, e.g., heavy labor and low-skill agricultural and manufacturing jobs, are more susceptible to climate change. Few studies applied evidence about the effects of rest breaks from heat on the labor productivity of workers empirically but provided qualitative impacts of the effects of heat and rest breaks on labor productivity (Bodin, Garc-a-Trabanino, et al, 2016 and others) The literature has no dearth of studies on the effects of climate change on the macroeconomy. The earliest studies on the macroeconomic effects of climate change on the United States were presented by Cline (1992), Nordhaus (1991), and Titus (1992). More recent studies, e.g. Casey, Fried and Gibson (2022) and others, modeled the growth effects of climate change through its direct impact on productivity which affects GDP. The effects of heat in recent years have shown a shift in the distribution of daily temperatures to include more hot days and more days with wet bulb global temperature (WBGT) exceeding the threshold for heat tolerance in individuals. There is little emphasis on the measurement of economic costs of climate change in US workplaces as measured by labor productivity has been estimated in billions of dollars ( Kjellstrom, 2009). In the end, this paper analyzes the effects of labor practices of remediating heat that could impact the labor productivity of workers by examining occupations in agriculture and construction and estimating the impacts or costs onAn Evaluation of Income Share Agreements: The Effect of Education Insurance Framing and the Nature of Adverse Selection
Abstract
Education is a risky investment. While education, on average, does increase wages, the variance is still present. Some institutions have proposed income share agreements (ISAs) as an alternative to student loans. ISAs provide students an opportunity to pay a fraction of their income over a fixed period of time in lieu of tuition. However, as with all forms of insurance, adverse selection is a concern because riskier students may opt into the program while less risky students wouldn’t participate. We collaborated with a large, private, non-profit university to conduct an experiment where the University randomly provided information that framed a hypothetical ISA as either education insurance or a risk neutral setting. We find the education insurance framing increased hypothetical ISA take-up by ten percentage points. However, we find no evidence the insurance framing induced riskier students to choose the ISA at greater rates. We do find that a decreased share with a longer term does increase ISA interest, but information about the proposed student loan forgiveness does decrease ISA interest.Discussant(s)
Junjie Guo
,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Monica Garcia-Perez
,
St. Cloud State University
JEL Classifications
- I1 - Health
- D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics