Subjective wellbeing: why weather matters

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 va...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, Statistics in society Vol. 179; no. 1; pp. 203 - 228
Main Authors Feddersen, John, Metcalfe, Robert, Wooden, Mark
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2016
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Oxford University Press
Subjects
Climate
Climatology
Cognition & reasoning
Complexity
Household
Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey
Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey
Life satisfaction
Mood
Quality of life
Reporting
Specifications
Statistics
Subjective wellbeing
Weather
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary: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.
Bibliography:Australian Research Council discovery grant - No. DP1095497
ArticleID:RSSA12118
'Subjective well-being: why weather matters: Supplementary Tables'.
istex:4CBBF31EC83D530E0529CC600E277927CAEBEFAD
ark:/67375/WNG-2C5JSRB8-F
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0964-1998
1467-985X
DOI:10.1111/rssa.12118