Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for World Economics
No 1658:
The Impact of Climate on Life Satisfaction
David Maddison and Katrin Rehdanz
Abstract: We analyse the influence of climate on average life
satisfaction in 87 countries using data from the World Values Survey.
Climate is described in terms of ‘degree-months’ calculated using an
optimally-selected base temperature of 65°F (18.3°C). Our results suggest
that countries with climates characterised by a large number of
degree-months enjoy significantly lower levels of life satisfaction. This
finding is robust to a wide variety of model specifications. Using our
results to analyse a particular climate change scenario associated with the
IPCC A2 emissions scenario points to major losses for African countries,
but modest gains for Northern Europe
Keywords: climate; climate change; happiness; life satisfaction; survey data; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: D60,; H41,; I31,; Q51,; Q54; (follow links to similar papers)
23 pages, November 2010
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