Data and Code for: The Willingness to Pay for a Cooler Day: Evidence from 50 Years of Major League Baseball Games

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Kevin Kuruc , University of Texas-Austin Population Wellbeing Initiative; Melissa LoPalo, Montana State University; Sean O'Connor, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  WtPCoolerDay 04/18/2024 05:48:PM

Project Citation: 

Kuruc , Kevin, LoPalo, Melissa, and O’Connor, Sean. Data and Code for: The Willingness to Pay for a Cooler Day: Evidence from 50 Years of Major League Baseball Games. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-12-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/E192427V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary 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. Using 50 years of data, 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 non-trivial aggregate welfare effects.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms climate change; climate amenities; environmental valuation
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      Q51 Valuation of Environmental Effects
      Q54 Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1/1/1950 – 12/31/2021
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 1/1/1950 – 12/31/2021
Universe:  View help for Universe Major League Baseball games, 1950-2021
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) geographic information system (GIS) data; observational data

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source Retrosheet 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Integrated Surface Database (ISD)
PRISM
Wolfram Schlenker's "Daily Weather Data for Contiguous United States"
NEX-GDDP-CMIP6
American Time Use Survey
Seatgeek API 
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) "Gridded Population of the World"


Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Baseball Game
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit Baseball Stadium

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-12-30]

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