Heat and Observed Economic Activity in the Rich Urban Tropics
Mobility data show Singapore residents—especially low‑income groups—shift toward air‑conditioned workplaces, malls, and schools on hotter days. This reduces heat impacts but increases long‑term energy use, illustrating how wealthy cities can buffer heat while potentially worsening the broader climate crisis.
Subject Tags
- Climate impacts
- Renewable energy
- Social Sciences
Abstract
We use space- and time-resolved mobility data to assess how heat impacts Singapore, a rich city state and arguably a harbinger of what is to come in the urbanising tropics. Singapore’s offices, factories, malls, buses and trains are widely air conditioned, its public schools less so. We document increased attendance and commuting to workplaces, malls and the more air-conditioned schools on hotter relative to cooler days, particularly by low-income residents with limited use of adaptive technologies at home. Investment by rich cities may attenuate heat’s pervasive negative consequences on productive outcomes, yet this may worsen the climate emergency in the long run.
Citation
Fesselmeyer, E., Liu, H., Salvo, A. and Simorangkir, R.P., 2024. Heat and observed economic activity in the rich urban tropics. The Economic Journal, 134(664), pp.3445-3460. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueae046
TNC Authors
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Rhita P B Simorangkir
Conservation Impact Scientist, Asia Pacific
The Nature Conservancy
Email: r.simorangkir@tnc.org