Winter Weather and Work Hours: Heterogeneous Effects and Regional Adaptation

Bo Liu () and Barry Hirsch ()
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Bo Liu: Southern New Hampshire University

No 13831, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Winter weather affects hours worked. We examine how work hours reported in the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) vary with respect to snowfall in 265 metropolitan areas over the years 2004-2014. The effects of snowfall on work hours vary across types of workers, occupation, industry, and region. Losses in work hours due to snow events are particularly large in the South and among construction workers. An average daily inch of snowfall during a reference week reduces work by about an hour. Few of the hours lost from large snowfalls are "made-up" in subsequent weeks. A "back-of-an-envelope" calculation suggests that in an average year, snow leads to a 0.15 percent loss in annual hours worked, a small but nontrivial impact.

Keywords: work hours and snow; regional adaptation; heterogeneity by industry; occupation; work type (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 O4 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-lma
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Published - published in: Contemporary Economic Policy, 2021, 39 (4), 867-881

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Journal Article: Winter weather and work hours: Heterogeneous effects and regional adaptation (2021)
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