Given the lousy weather and the lousy macroeconomy prevailing in Ireland it is natural to wonder do adverse weather shocks have an impact on economic activity? One's intuition is that bad weather is bad for the economy though clearly there will be silver linings to the cloud for some, manufacturers and purveyors of galoshes for example. For a non-technical discussion of why weather does matter see Niemara (2005).
In an historical analysis Solomou & Wu (2002) "considers the influence of weather shocks at a disaggregated level of analysis, modelling the effects of weather shocks on British agriculture, construction and energy demand over the period 1870–1913. The impact of weather shocks will vary from sector to sector as the conditions favouring one activity may be adverse to another. The sectoral effects are aggregated to give us an estimate of the macroeconomic effects of weather on business cycle fluctuations"
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Friday, December 03, 2010
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Weather,wellbeing & risk
The lousy weather in Ireland is a source of perennial gloom. A connection between well-being and weather seems unsurprising. What I didn't know was that lack of sunshine also seems to predict risk taking behaviour.
http://www.deakin.edu.au/news/2009/150909happiness.php
http://www.deakin.edu.au/news/2009/150909happiness.php
Monday, May 25, 2009
10.37am: Monday
New figures suggest that irish people are the most miserable in Europe. Apparently, we spend the equivalent of more than a working day -- nine hours and 28 minutes -- every week griping about something. And women are more likely to moan than men. A majority (59pc) of both sexes agreed on that.
Our objects of grief (in order) are the weather (see previous papers on weather and well-being here and here), traffic, feeling tired and our workloads. And we are at the peak of our grief at 10.37am each Monday. "That's when more of us are whining and moaning than at any other time of the week."
The survey was conducted by Uniroyal Tyres and involved asking 4,000 Europeans about the frequency of their gripes. More details are available in the Irish Independent here.
Our objects of grief (in order) are the weather (see previous papers on weather and well-being here and here), traffic, feeling tired and our workloads. And we are at the peak of our grief at 10.37am each Monday. "That's when more of us are whining and moaning than at any other time of the week."
The survey was conducted by Uniroyal Tyres and involved asking 4,000 Europeans about the frequency of their gripes. More details are available in the Irish Independent here.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Economics 2.0
"For decades, many of the brightest graduates in economics sought their fortune in finance. In coming years, they will seek it in marketing, as the Internet gives all companies the information-rich environment once available only in financial markets."
That’s the prediction of Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, and economist at the University of California at Berkeley. Varian discusses why marketing is the new finance in this Wall Street Journal article from last year.
Below, Varian gives a lecture on the "Economics of Internet Search", from this year's Calit2-sponsored series, "Behavioral, Social, and Computer Sciences Seminar Series" - Friday, May 23, 2008. Following on from the last post about 'The Weather and Work', apparently "it's good for Google if the weather is bad, but not too bad..."
That’s the prediction of Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, and economist at the University of California at Berkeley. Varian discusses why marketing is the new finance in this Wall Street Journal article from last year.
Below, Varian gives a lecture on the "Economics of Internet Search", from this year's Calit2-sponsored series, "Behavioral, Social, and Computer Sciences Seminar Series" - Friday, May 23, 2008. Following on from the last post about 'The Weather and Work', apparently "it's good for Google if the weather is bad, but not too bad..."
The Weather and Work
Marie Connolly (Princeton) has a paper in the Journal of Labor Economics (2008, vol. 26, no. 1) about the weather and intertemporal substitution of labour. A rainy day is associated with lower enjoyment of leisure, more hours at work and higher wages. Connolly tests the model using data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), supplemented with information about daily weather.
The question arises - are individuals not constrained in terms of their working-time decisions? Connolly describes a few recent papers that have looked at jobs held by individuals such as taxi drivers (Camerer et al. 1997; Farber 2004, 2005) and bike messengers (Fehr and Goette 2002), in which workers can effectively choose their daily hours of work. She also mentions that daily work time is calculated in minutes in the ATUS, which allows fine-grained analysis. She finds that, on rainy days, men shift on average 30 minutes from leisure to work.
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it, eh?
The question arises - are individuals not constrained in terms of their working-time decisions? Connolly describes a few recent papers that have looked at jobs held by individuals such as taxi drivers (Camerer et al. 1997; Farber 2004, 2005) and bike messengers (Fehr and Goette 2002), in which workers can effectively choose their daily hours of work. She also mentions that daily work time is calculated in minutes in the ATUS, which allows fine-grained analysis. She finds that, on rainy days, men shift on average 30 minutes from leisure to work.
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it, eh?
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Effects of Weather on Daily Mood
An interesting study from this months issue of 'Emotion' examines the effects of six weather parameters (temperature, wind power, sunlight, precipitation, air pressure, and photoperiod) on mood (positive affect, negative affect, and tiredness).
Using a multi-level approach they find "Sunlight had a main effect on tiredness and mediated the effects of precipitation and air pressure on tiredness. These individual differences in weather sensitivity could not be explained by the Five Factor Model personality traits, gender, or age."
Using a multi-level approach they find "Sunlight had a main effect on tiredness and mediated the effects of precipitation and air pressure on tiredness. These individual differences in weather sensitivity could not be explained by the Five Factor Model personality traits, gender, or age."
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