American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
The Willingness to Pay for a Cooler Day: Evidence from 50 Years of Major League Baseball Games
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 17,
no. 1, January 2025
(pp. 126–59)
Abstract
The climate economy literature has documented adverse effects of extreme temperatures on well-being through mechanisms such as mortality, productivity, and conflict. Impacts due simply to discomfort are less well understood. This paper investigates individuals' valuations of weather using a revealed preference approach. We first quantify the decline in attendance at Major League Baseball games on hot and cold days. Leveraging this finding coupled with the historically informed assumption of a horizontal supply curve, we infer a monetized estimate of the disutility of extreme temperatures. We estimate a $1.53 utility loss per hour of exposure to high temperatures, implying nontrivial aggregate welfare effects.Citation
Kuruc, Kevin, Melissa LoPalo, and Sean O'Connor. 2025. "The Willingness to Pay for a Cooler Day: Evidence from 50 Years of Major League Baseball Games." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 17 (1): 126–59. DOI: 10.1257/app.20220606Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- L83 Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
- Q54 Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
- Z21 Sports Economics: Industry Studies
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