The impact of high temperatures on performance in work-related activities

Matteo Picchio and Jan C. van Ours

Labour Economics, 2024, vol. 87, issue C

Abstract: High temperatures can have a negative effect on work-related activities because workers may experience difficulties concentrating or have to reduce effort in order to cope with heat. We investigate how temperature affects performance of professional tennis players in outdoor singles matches in big tournaments. We find that performance significantly decreases with ambient temperature. This result is robust to including wind speed and air pollution in the analysis. There are no differences between men and women. However, there is some heterogeneity in the magnitude of the temperature effect in other dimensions. In particular, we find that the temperature effect is smaller when there is more at stake. Our findings also suggest that the negative temperature effect is smaller if the heat lasts, i.e. there is some adaptation to high temperatures.

Keywords: Climate change; Temperatures; Tennis; Performance; Productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J81 Q51 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537124000058
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: THE IMPACT OF HIGH TEMPERATURES ON PERFORMANCE IN WORK-RELATED ACTIVITIES (2023)
Working Paper: The impact of high temperatures on performance in work-related activities (2023)
Working Paper: The Impact of High Temperatures on Performance in Work-Related Activities (2023)
Working Paper: The impact of high temperatures on performance in work-related activities (2023)
Working Paper: The impact of high temperatures on performance in work-related activities (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:87:y:2024:i:c:s0927537124000058

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102509

Access Statistics for this article

Labour Economics is currently edited by A. Ichino

More articles in Labour Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().