Climate and Happiness ICTP气候和幸福ICTP.ppt

Introduction Climate is an important input to many household activities Affects heating and cooling requirements Determines clothing and nutritional needs Limits recreational activities Impacts of an enhanced greenhouse effect are many and diverse The effects of a changing climate might be positive or negative, depending on time and place Little is known about peoples preferences for a particular climate Can we determine the economic impacts of future climate change to households/individuals? Is climate a determinant of happiness? Outline Why are we interested in peoples preferences? Different valuation methods Happiness research Happiness in economics Regression analysis Why investigating preferences? Tackling the problem of future climate changes has major implications for policies of development and management is very costly Research work has generally focused on changes in productivity in sectors Little attention has been drawn to climate as an input to household activities To determine, if climate change is good or bad indicators are needed How can we measure the preferences for commodities not being traded on a market? Environmental Valuation Methods Environmental goods are not traded on a market How can we estimate the price nonetheless? Indirect valuation looks at surrogate markets (complements, substitutes) e.g. hedonic pricing method, household production function approach Direct valuation Hypothetical market e.g. contingent valuation ? Happiness research People are directly asked about their subjective well-being Happiness Research Domain of psychologists Analysis of individuals evaluation of life circumstances and comparisons to other people past experience and expectation of the future How is happiness measured? Different type of questions ?Taking all together, would you say you are: very happy fairly happy not happy at all.“ Decades of validation research Happiness in Economics Uncommon in economics Objective position observable choic