February 12, 2015
WARM CLIMATES BREED MORAL LASSITUDE:
Does the Environment Still Matter? Daily Temperature and Income in the United States (Tatyana Deryugina, Solomon M. Hsiang, December 2014, NBER Working Paper No. 20750)
It is widely hypothesized that incomes in wealthy countries are insulated from environmental conditions because individuals have the resources needed to adapt to their environment. We test this idea in the wealthiest economy in human history. Using within-county variation in weather, we estimate the effect of daily temperature on annual income in United States counties over a 40-year period. We find that this single environmental parameter continues to play a large role in overall economic performance: productivity of individual days declines roughly 1.7% for each 1°C (1.8°F) increase in daily average temperature above 15°C (59°F). A weekday above 30°C (86°F) costs an average county $20 per person.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 12, 2015 4:35 PM
Tweet