Lightning, IT diffusion and Economic Growth across US States

TY - JOUR

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

AU - Andersen, Thomas Barnebeck

AU - Bentzen, Jeanet Sinding

AU - Dalgaard, Carl-Johan Lars

AU - Selaya, Pablo

PY - 2012/11

Y1 - 2012/11

N2 - Empirically, a higher frequency of lightning strikes is associated with slower growth in labor productivity across the 48 contiguous U.S. 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 kilometer 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 U.S. 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 kilometer 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.

U2 - 10.1162/REST_a_00316

DO - 10.1162/REST_a_00316

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0034-6535

VL - 94

SP - 903

EP - 924

JO - Review of Economics and Statistics

JF - Review of Economics and Statistics

IS - 4

ER -