Lightning, IT Diffusion and Economic Growth across US States

TY - UNPB

T1 - Lightning, IT Diffusion and Economic Growth across US States

AU - Andersen, Thomas Barnebeck

AU - Bentzen, Jeanet

AU - Dalgaard, Carl-Johan Lars

AU - Selaya, Pablo

N1 - JEL classification: O33, O51, Q54

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - Empirically, a higher frequency of lightning strikes is associated with slower growth in labor productivity across the 48 contiguous US states after 1990; before 1990 there is no correlation between growth and lightning. Other climate variables (e.g., temperature, rainfall and tornadoes) do not conform to this pattern. A viable explanation is that lightning influences IT diffusion. By causing voltage spikes and dips, a higher frequency of ground strikes leads to damaged digital equipment and thus higher IT user costs. Accordingly, the flash density (strikes per square km per year) should adversely affect the speed of IT diffusion. We find that lightning indeed seems to have slowed IT diffusion, conditional on standard controls. Hence, an increasing macroeconomic sensitivity to lightning may be due to the increasing importance of digital technologies for the growth process.

AB - Empirically, a higher frequency of lightning strikes is associated with slower growth in labor productivity across the 48 contiguous US states after 1990; before 1990 there is no correlation between growth and lightning. Other climate variables (e.g., temperature, rainfall and tornadoes) do not conform to this pattern. A viable explanation is that lightning influences IT diffusion. By causing voltage spikes and dips, a higher frequency of ground strikes leads to damaged digital equipment and thus higher IT user costs. Accordingly, the flash density (strikes per square km per year) should adversely affect the speed of IT diffusion. We find that lightning indeed seems to have slowed IT diffusion, conditional on standard controls. Hence, an increasing macroeconomic sensitivity to lightning may be due to the increasing importance of digital technologies for the growth process.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - climate

KW - IT diffusion

KW - economic growth

M3 - Working paper

BT - Lightning, IT Diffusion and Economic Growth across US States

PB - Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen

ER -