Premium
Does Daily Sunshine Make You Happy? Subjective Measures of Well‐Being and the Weather
Author(s) -
Buscha Franz
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the manchester school
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.361
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9957
pISSN - 1463-6786
DOI - 10.1111/manc.12126
Subject(s) - sunshine duration , british household panel survey , wind speed , subjective well being , randomness , econometrics , meteorology , environmental science , climatology , economics , demographic economics , psychology , geography , mathematics , statistics , social psychology , happiness , precipitation , geology
This paper examines to what extent individual measures of well‐being are correlated with daily weather patterns in the United Kingdom. Merging daily weather data into the British Household Panel Survey allows us to test whether measures of self‐reported well‐being are correlated with temperature, sunshine, rainfall and wind speed. We are able to make a strong case for causality due to ‘randomness’ of weather in addition to using methods that eliminate time‐invariant individual‐level heterogeneity. Results suggest that the effect of daily weather on measures of subjective well‐being is negligible; although there is some evidence that sunshine affects job satisfaction negatively.