TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jones,Benjamin F.
AU  - Olken,Benjamin A.
TI  - Climate Shocks and Exports
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15711
PY  - 2010
Y2  - January 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15711
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15711.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Benjamin Jones
Northwestern University
Kellogg School of Management
Department of Management and Strategy
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL  60208
Tel: 847/491-3177
Fax: 847/467-1777
E-Mail: bjones@kellogg.northwestern.edu

Benjamin A. Olken
Department of Economics
MIT
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA  02142-1347
Tel: 617/588-1437
Fax: 617/868-2742
E-Mail: bolken@mit.edu
AB  - This paper uses international trade data to examine the effects of climate shocks on economic activity.  We examine panel models relating the annual growth rate of a country’s exports in a particular product category to the country’s weather in that year.  We find that a poor country being 1 degree Celsius warmer in a given year reduces the growth rate of that country’s exports by between 2.0 and 5.7 percentage points, with no detectable effects in rich countries. We find negative effects of temperature on exports of both agricultural products and light manufacturing products, with little apparent effects on heavy industry or raw materials. The results confirm large negative effects of temperature on poor countries’ economies and suggest that temperature affects a much wider range of economic activity than conventionally thought.
ER  -