Heat, climate control, and worker absences: Evidence from India

Does heat increase the probability of missing work for formal sector workers? We address this question by analysing nearly three years of daily data on 274 employees across 86 locations of a large welding firm in India. A 1°C rise in daily mean temperature increases the probability of missing work for workers without workplace climate control by 3.4% of the mean rate of absence. The same temperature increase decreases the probability of missing work by 2.5% relative to mean absenteeism for workers with climate control.