Study: Productivity — and monetary earnings — decrease on hotter days
A new study from economists at the University of Illinois and the University of California, Berkeley, found that when average daily temperatures are above 59 degrees, people work less and earn less money. The findings were published in a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The researchers looked at 40 years of temperatures and economic data, and they found that average economic productivity decreases by almost one percent for every degree Fahrenheit above 59 degrees. For days with average temperatures of 77 degrees, for example, people's income was reduced by about $5 a day.
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