Subjective wellbeing: why weather matters

John Feddersen; Robert Metcalfe; Mark Wooden

Journal article

Subjective wellbeing: why weather matters

John Feddersen, Robert Metcalfe, Mark Wooden

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY SERIES A-STATISTICS IN SOCIETY | WILEY | Published : 2016

DOI: 10.1111/rssa.12118

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Abstract

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.

University of Melbourne Researchers

Mark Wooden Author Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research

Related Projects (1)

Assessing and Enhancing the Quality of Longitudinal Survey Data

Australia has begun investing heavily in the collection of population-wide longitudinal survey data. Most of that effort has focused first o..

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

Without implication, we thank Jonathan Colmer, Paul Dolan, Greer Gosnell, Cameron Hepburn, George Kavetsos, Richard Lucas, Peter Neary, Andrew Oswald, Alois Stutzer and numerous seminar participants for helpful comments. Markus Hahn and Ning Li provided excellent research assistance. This paper uses unit record data from the HILDA Survey (release 9.0). The HILDA project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). Details of how to obtain the data can be found at http://melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/. The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either the Department of Social Services or the Melbourne Institute. The computer code that generated results is available on request from Feddersen. The research that is reported on in this paper has been supported, in part, by an Australian Research Council discovery grant (DP1095497).