{"title":"Changes in corporate employment under climate risk","authors":"Wanli Li , Junrui Chen , Kaibin Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.jimonfin.2025.103368","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using observation data from the meteorological station closest to firms among 928 stations across mainland China, we construct firm-level physical climate risk indicators. We find that climate risks lead firms to tighten employment, which is more pronounced in labor-intensive firms, non-state-owned firms, firms with higher tax burdens, and regions with higher minimum wage standard. Mechanism tests indicate that climate risks reduce corporate employment by shrinking production scales, deteriorating business performance, and intensifying financing frictions. Furthermore, government efforts to build climate-resilient cities, invest in flood control and implement corporate tax reductions, along with the development of the insurance industry, can alleviate the adverse effects of climate risks on local firms’ employment. Firms can also address climate risks by enhancing financial flexibility and organizational resilience. Additionally, firms may also resort to wage reductions in response to climate risks, but whether they choose wage reductions or cutting employment depends on the flexibility to lower their existing wage levels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48331,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Money and Finance","volume":"157 ","pages":"Article 103368"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of International Money and Finance","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261560625001032","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Using observation data from the meteorological station closest to firms among 928 stations across mainland China, we construct firm-level physical climate risk indicators. We find that climate risks lead firms to tighten employment, which is more pronounced in labor-intensive firms, non-state-owned firms, firms with higher tax burdens, and regions with higher minimum wage standard. Mechanism tests indicate that climate risks reduce corporate employment by shrinking production scales, deteriorating business performance, and intensifying financing frictions. Furthermore, government efforts to build climate-resilient cities, invest in flood control and implement corporate tax reductions, along with the development of the insurance industry, can alleviate the adverse effects of climate risks on local firms’ employment. Firms can also address climate risks by enhancing financial flexibility and organizational resilience. Additionally, firms may also resort to wage reductions in response to climate risks, but whether they choose wage reductions or cutting employment depends on the flexibility to lower their existing wage levels.
期刊介绍:
Since its launch in 1982, Journal of International Money and Finance has built up a solid reputation as a high quality scholarly journal devoted to theoretical and empirical research in the fields of international monetary economics, international finance, and the rapidly developing overlap area between the two. Researchers in these areas, and financial market professionals too, pay attention to the articles that the journal publishes. Authors published in the journal are in the forefront of scholarly research on exchange rate behaviour, foreign exchange options, international capital markets, international monetary and fiscal policy, international transmission and related questions.