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Subjective wellbeing: why weather matters

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  • John Feddersen
  • Robert Metcalfe
  • Mark Wooden

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="rssa12118-abs-0001"> The paper reports results from the first ever study of the effect of short-term weather and long-term climate on self-reported life satisfaction that uses longitudinal data. We find robust evidence that day-to-day weather variation impacts self-reported life satisfaction. Utilizing two sources of variation in the cognitive complexity of satisfaction questions, we present evidence that weather effects arise because of the cognitive challenge of reporting life satisfaction. We do not detect a relationship between long-term climate and self-reported life satisfaction by using an individual fixed effects specification, which identifies climate impacts through individuals moving location.

Suggested Citation

  • John Feddersen & Robert Metcalfe & Mark Wooden, 2016. "Subjective wellbeing: why weather matters," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(1), pages 203-228, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jorssa:v:179:y:2016:i:1:p:203-228
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/rssa.2016.179.issue-1
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    1. Iacus Stefano M. & Salini Silvia & Siletti Elena & Porro Giuseppe, 2020. "Controlling for Selection Bias in Social Media Indicators through Official Statistics: a Proposal," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 36(2), pages 315-338, June.
    2. Eleftherios Giovanis, 2019. "Worthy to lose some money for better air quality: applications of Bayesian networks on the causal effect of income and air pollution on life satisfaction in Switzerland," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(5), pages 1579-1611, November.
    3. Paul Dolan & Georgios Kavetsos & Christian Krekel & Dimitris Mavridis & Robert Metcalfe & Claudia Senik & Stefan Szymanski & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2016. "The Host with the Most? The Effects of the Olympic Games on Happiness," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1599, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Patel, Pankaj C. & Devaraj, Srikant & Quigley, Narda R. & Oghazi, Pejvak, 2020. "The influence of sunlight on taxi driver productivity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 456-468.
    5. Ekaterina Oparina & Sorawoot Srisuma, 2022. "Analyzing Subjective Well-Being Data with Misclassification," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 730-743, April.
    6. Guglielmo Zappalà, 2023. "Drought Exposure and Accuracy: Motivated Reasoning in Climate Change Beliefs," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(3), pages 649-672, August.
    7. Giacomo Degli Antoni & Chiara Franco, 2022. "The effect of technological behaviour and beliefs on subjective well-being: the role of technological infrastructure," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 553-590, April.
    8. Alem, Yonas & Colmer, Jonathan, 2015. "Consumption smoothing and the welfare cost of uncertainty," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 63816, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Richard E. Lucas, 2021. "Comparing global reports of subjective well-being to experiential measures," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 19(1), pages 67-89.
    10. Akay, Alpaslan & Bargain, Olivier & Elsayed, Ahmed, 2020. "Global terror, well-being and political attitudes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    11. Dolan, Paul & Kavetsos, Georgios & Krekel, Christian & Mavridis, Dimitris & Metcalfe, Robert & Senik, Claudia & Szymanski, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2019. "Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Yonas Alem & Jonathan Colmer, 2015. "Consumption smoothing and the welfare cost of uncertainty," GRI Working Papers 118b, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    13. Yonas Alem & Jonathan Colmer, 2015. "Consumption Smoothing and the Welfare Cost of Uncertainty," CEP Discussion Papers dp1369, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Shuai Zhang & Binbin Liu & Dajian Zhu & Mingwang Cheng, 2018. "Explaining Individual Subjective Well-Being of Urban China Based on the Four-Capital Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-14, September.
    15. S. M. Iacus & G. Porro & S. Salini & E. Siletti, 2022. "An Italian Composite Subjective Well-Being Index: The Voice of Twitter Users from 2012 to 2017," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 471-489, June.
    16. Clément S. Bellet & Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & George Ward, 2019. "Does employee happiness have an impact on productivity?," CEP Discussion Papers dp1655, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    17. Guglielmo Zappalà, 2022. "Drought exposure and accuracy: Motivated reasoning in climate change beliefs," Working Papers 2022.02, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    18. Knight, S.J; Howley, P.;, 2017. "Can clean air make you happy? Examining the effect of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) on life satisfaction," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 17/08, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    19. Dietrich, Stephan & Nichols, Stafford, 2023. "More than a feeling," MERIT Working Papers 2023-005, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    20. Barbara Felderer & Jannis Kueck & Martin Spindler, 2021. "Big Data meets Causal Survey Research: Understanding Nonresponse in the Recruitment of a Mixed-mode Online Panel," Papers 2102.08994, arXiv.org.
    21. Federica Cugnata & Silvia Salini & Elena Siletti, 2021. "Deepening Well-Being Evaluation with Different Data Sources: A Bayesian Networks Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-10, July.
    22. Akay, Alpaslan & Bargain, Olivier & Elsayed, Ahmed, 2018. "Everybody's a Victim? Global Terror, Well-Being and Political Attitudes," Working Papers in Economics 733, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    23. Degli Antoni, Giacomo & Vittucci Marzetti, Giuseppe, 2022. "Estimating the effect on happiness through question randomization: An application to blood donation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    24. Yonas Alem & Jonathan Colmer, 2015. "Consumption Smoothing and the Welfare Cost of Uncertainty," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 059, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    25. Madlaina Niederhauser & Regula Zueger & Sandra Sefidan & Hubert Annen & Serge Brand & Dena Sadeghi-Bahmani, 2022. "Does Training Motivation Influence Resilience Training Outcome on Chronic Stress? Results from an Interventional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-14, May.

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