Labor Activism Over Searing Heat

There is a long-running debate on whether and how hot temperatures fuel conflicts. We focus on an important yet overlooked conflict type, labor unrest, and provide evidence from China. We show that extreme heat raises the probability of labor unrest by 15.7%, leading to a two-fold increase in monthly incidence. We characterize effect heterogeneity by action type, firm ownership, industry, and region. Finally, we hypothesize and provide evidence that firms' lost profits and workers' psychological and physiological stress are the potential pathways through which extreme heat ignites labor unrest