Temperature and the Allocation of Time: Implications for Climate Change

It is all about getting the right instrument these days.

This looks like an interesting paper (having not read it yet).

I am not yet convinced that working patterns will change with temperature changes especially where every company has air conditioning.

Even the quote from the abstract I find a little odd. It must relate to the definition of "climate". Are we all not exposed to climate all the time? How can one have a low exposure to climate?

"We find large reductions in U.S. labor supply in industries with high exposure to climate and similarly large decreases in time allocated to outdoor leisure."

I guess I need to read the paper to find out.


Temperature and the Allocation of Time: Implications for Climate Change

Joshua Graff Zivin
University of California, San Diego - Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IRPS); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Matthew Neidell
Columbia University; University of Chicago - Department of Economics and CISES


February 2010

NBER Working Paper No. w15717

Abstract:
In this paper we estimate the impacts of climate change on the allocation of time using econometric models that exploit plausibly exogenous variation in daily temperature over time within counties. We find large reductions in U.S. labor supply in industries with high exposure to climate and similarly large decreases in time allocated to outdoor leisure. We also find suggestive evidence of short-run adaptation through temporal substitutions and acclimatization. Given the industrial composition of the US, the net impacts on total employment are likely to be small, but significant changes in leisure time as well as large scale redistributions of income may be consequential. In developing countries, where the industrial base is more typically concentrated in climate-exposed industries and baseline temperatures are already warmer, employment impacts may be considerably larger.

Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

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