IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rff/dpaper/dp-17-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Climate on Leisure Demand: Evidence from North America

Author

Listed:
  • Chan, Nathan
  • Wichman, Casey

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract

There is extensive research documenting the economic consequences of climate change, yet our understanding of climate impacts on nonmarket activities remains incomplete. Here, we investigate the effect of weather on leisure demand. Using data from 27 million bicycle trips in 16 North American cities, we estimate how outdoor recreation responds to daily weather fluctuations. Combining these estimates with time-use survey data and climate projections, we project annual surplus gains of $894 million from climate-induced cycling by mid-century. Extrapolating to a broad measure of outdoor recreation, our back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest climate-induced benefits of $20.7 billion per year.

Suggested Citation

  • Chan, Nathan & Wichman, Casey, 2017. "The Effects of Climate on Leisure Demand: Evidence from North America," RFF Working Paper Series 17-20, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-17-20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rff.org/documents/1792/RFF20WP2017-20-REV.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marshall Burke & Solomon M. Hsiang & Edward Miguel, 2015. "Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production," Nature, Nature, vol. 527(7577), pages 235-239, November.
    2. Richard S. J. Tol, 2014. "Correction and Update: The Economic Effects of Climate Change," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(2), pages 221-226, Spring.
    3. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2014. "Temperature and the Allocation of Time: Implications for Climate Change," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(1), pages 1-26.
    4. Marshall Burke & Kyle Emerick, 2016. "Adaptation to Climate Change: Evidence from US Agriculture," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 106-140, August.
    5. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    6. Hamilton, Timothy L. & Wichman, Casey J., 2018. "Bicycle infrastructure and traffic congestion: Evidence from DC's Capital Bikeshare," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 72-93.
    7. Nick Obradovich & James H. Fowler, 2017. "Climate change may alter human physical activity patterns," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(5), pages 1-7, May.
    8. Deacon, Robert T & Sonstelie, Jon, 1985. "Rationing by Waiting and the Value of Time: Results from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 627-647, August.
    9. Orley Ashenfelter & Michael Greenstone, 2004. "Using Mandated Speed Limits to Measure the Value of a Statistical Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages 226-267, February.
    10. Marshall Burke & John Dykema & David B. Lobell & Edward Miguel & Shanker Satyanath, 2015. "Incorporating Climate Uncertainty into Estimates of Climate Change Impacts," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(2), pages 461-471, May.
    11. Maximilian Auffhammer & Solomon M. Hsiang & Wolfram Schlenker & Adam Sobel, 2013. "Using Weather Data and Climate Model Output in Economic Analyses of Climate Change," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(2), pages 181-198, July.
    12. Obradovich, Nicholas & Fowler, James H., 2017. "Climate change may alter human physical activity patterns," Scholarly Articles 36874928, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    13. Richard S. J. Tol, 2009. "The Economic Effects of Climate Change," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 29-51, Spring.
    14. Gian-Reto Walther & Eric Post & Peter Convey & Annette Menzel & Camille Parmesan & Trevor J. C. Beebee & Jean-Marc Fromentin & Ove Hoegh-Guldberg & Franz Bairlein, 2002. "Ecological responses to recent climate change," Nature, Nature, vol. 416(6879), pages 389-395, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nathan W. Chan & Casey J. Wichman, 2020. "Climate Change and Recreation: Evidence from North American Cycling," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(1), pages 119-151, May.
    2. Acevedo, Sebastian & Mrkaic, Mico & Novta, Natalija & Pugacheva, Evgenia & Topalova, Petia, 2020. "The Effects of Weather Shocks on Economic Activity: What are the Channels of Impact?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Hailemariam, Abebe & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Appau, Samuelson, 2023. "Temperature, health and wellbeing in Australia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    4. Linsenmeier, Manuel, 2023. "Global variation in the optimal temperature for recreational outdoor activity," SocArXiv dwye8, Center for Open Science.
    5. Kaixing Huang & Qianqian Hong, 2024. "The impact of global warming on obesity," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 1-32, September.
    6. Meierrieks, Daniel & Stadelmann, David, 2024. "Is temperature adversely related to economic development? Evidence on the short-run and the long-run links from sub-national data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 136, pages 1-18.
    7. Chang, Jun-Jie & Mi, Zhifu & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2023. "Temperature and GDP: A review of climate econometrics analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 383-392.
    8. Emediegwu, Lotanna E. & Wossink, Ada & Hall, Alastair, 2022. "The impacts of climate change on agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: A spatial panel data approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    9. Kahn, Matthew E. & Mohaddes, Kamiar & Ng, Ryan N.C. & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Raissi, Mehdi & Yang, Jui-Chung, 2021. "Long-term macroeconomic effects of climate change: A cross-country analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    10. David Albouy & Walter Graf & Ryan Kellogg & Hendrik Wolff, 2016. "Climate Amenities, Climate Change, and American Quality of Life," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 205-246.
    11. Linsenmeier, Manuel, 2023. "Temperature variability and long-run economic development," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    12. Rémi Generoso & Cécile Couharde & Olivier Damette & Kamiar Mohaddes, 2020. "The Growth Effects of El Niño and La Niña: Local Weather Conditions Matter," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 140, pages 83-126.
    13. Geoffrey Heal & Jisung Park, 2016. "Editor's Choice Reflections—Temperature Stress and the Direct Impact of Climate Change: A Review of an Emerging Literature," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(2), pages 347-362.
    14. Ingvild Almås & Maximilian Auffhammer & Tessa Bold & Ian Bolliger & Aluma Dembo & Solomon M. Hsiang & Shuhei Kitamura & Edward Miguel & Robert Pickmans, 2019. "Destructive Behavior, Judgment, and Economic Decision-making under Thermal Stress," NBER Working Papers 25785, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Solomon M. Hsiang & Amir S. Jina, 2014. "The Causal Effect of Environmental Catastrophe on Long-Run Economic Growth: Evidence From 6,700 Cyclones," NBER Working Papers 20352, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Du, Ding & Zhao, Xiaobing, 2016. "Temperature and US Economic Activity: Evidence from Disaggregated Data," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235105, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Jonathan Colmer, 2021. "Temperature, Labor Reallocation, and Industrial Production: Evidence from India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 101-124, October.
    18. David García-León, 2015. "Weather and Income: Lessons from the Main European Regions," Working Papers 2015.39, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    19. Zhang, Yongji & Liu, Lingxi & Lan, Minghui & Su, Zhi & Wang, Ke, 2024. "Climate change and economic policy uncertainty: Evidence from major countries around the world," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1045-1060.
    20. Arbex, Marcelo & Batu, Michael, 2020. "What if people value nature? Climate change and welfare costs," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-17-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Resources for the Future (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rffffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.