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Winter weather and work hours: Heterogeneous effects and regional adaptation
Author(s) -
Liu Bo,
Hirsch Barry T.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1111/coep.12516
Subject(s) - snow , metropolitan area , work (physics) , current population survey , work hours , geography , meteorology , population , environmental science , physical geography , climatology , demographic economics , demography , economics , engineering , mechanical engineering , archaeology , sociology , geology
We examine how work hours reported in the Current Population Survey vary with snowfall in 265 metropolitan areas during 2004–2014. The effects of snowfall on work vary across types of workers, occupation, industry, and region. Regions adapt to inclement weather. Losses in work hours from snow events are particularly large in Southern states and among construction workers. An average daily inch of snowfall during a week reduces work by an hour. Few of the hours lost are “made‐up” in subsequent weeks. A “back‐of‐an‐envelope” calculation suggests that in average years, snow reduces annual hours worked by 0.15%.