Labour Supply and the Environment: Evidence from Mexico

Climate change is expected to create drastic effects at a planetary scale such as global warming, increase of natural disasters and damage to water supplies and ecosystems, among others. These impacts will seriously disrupt economic activities, particularly among the most vulnerable in the developing world, such as traditional farers or low productivity and self-employed informal workers in urban areas. The ability to cope with environmental disruptions and to adapt to a changing climate can have strong implications in terms of wellbeing for vulnerable households. This project aims to analyse the interactions between environmental factors such as pollution and weather, and the labour supply of informal workers in Mexico. Using highly detailed satellite data and information gathered by the Mexican government in monitoring stations around its major cities in combination with the national employment survey, I will study how these external factors affect the behaviour and labour market outcomes of said population.