Heat, Gender, and Time: The Impact of Temperature on Time Allocation in India

This paper examines how heat stress influences gendered time allocation across diverse activity domains in a developing country context. We match high-resolution climate data (ERA5 global reanalysis dataset) with large-scale, high-frequency individual-level panel data from the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (2019–2024). We find that extreme heat sharply reduces time spent in paid work, learning, and social–community participation, with larger declines for men in paid work and learning and for women in social activities. By contrast, time-use on unpaid household work remains relatively unresponsive, while self-care increases for both genders. Remarkably, these effects are especially pronounced in historically hotter regions and among never-married individuals.