The Effect of Winter Weather on U.S. Economic Activity
The authors’ findings support the view that weather has a significant, but short-lived, effect on economic activity. Except for a few industries, which are affected importantly (such as utilities, construction, hospitality and to a lesser extent retail), the effect is not very big, so that even the fairly bad weather during the 2013–14 winter cannot account entirely for the weak economy during that period. Other factors must have been at play.
