Premium
The impact of weather and climate on industrial production in Great Britain
Author(s) -
Palutikof Jean
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0196-1748
DOI - 10.1002/joc.3370030106
Subject(s) - industrial production index , production (economics) , extreme weather , industrial production , environmental science , index (typography) , work (physics) , climate change , climatology , economics , engineering , ecology , computer science , keynesian economics , macroeconomics , geology , mechanical engineering , biology , world wide web
The Index of Industrial Production (HP) is used as a measure of output from industry in Great Britain. A time‐series of this Index is derived extending from January 1958 to May 1979. This is compared both with seasonal extremes of climate and with more general departures from ‘average’ conditions, to determine the influence, if any, of weather and climate on industrial production. With respect to extreme seasons, a pronounced decline in industrial production look place during the drought summers of 1975‐6, and the severe winters of 1962‐3 and, to a lesser extent, 1978‐9. Non‐climatic factors, such as industrial disputes, are unlikely 10 have contributed substantially to the shortfall. The categories of industry affected were quite different during the two types of extreme weather event: during the 1962‐3 winter it was industries linked to work out‐of‐doors which suffered, in the 1975‐6 drought it was high water requirement industries. To determine the impact of general weather conditions, three sets of step‐wise multiple regression analyses are performed using a selection of climate and industrial dispute measures as the independent variables. The dependent variables are values of the January and July IIP with the trend expressing economic growth removed, and the size of the labour force in the construction industry in February. The analyses are performed both upon the full time‐series and on the time‐series with the extreme events removed. The results suggest that normal variations in the weather influence industrial production.