Moving to Nice Weather
By Jordan Rappaport

Current Version: January 2006
First Version: September 2003
RWP 03-07

Research Division
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Jordan Rappaport is a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The
author would like to thank Jonathan Willis and Steven Durlauf for advice and suggestions andMichael Haines for sharing historical census data. He also thanks Taisuke Nakata and Aarti
Singh for excellent research assistance. A number of other individuals have also made large
contributions to the construction of the underlying data including Nathaniel Baum Snow,
Scott Benolkin, Anne Berry, Krista Jacobs, Jason Martinek, Peter Northup, Chris Yenkey, andAndrea Zanter. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarilyreflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City or the Federal Reserve
System. Comments warmly appreciated.

Rappaport email: Jordan.rappaport@kc.frb.org

Abstract

U.S. residents have been moving en masse to places with nice weather. Well known isthe migration towards places with warm winters, which is often attributed to the introductionof air conditioning. But people have also been moving to places with cooler, less-humid
summers, which is the opposite of what is expected from the introduction of air conditioning.
Nor can the movement to nice weather be primarily explained by shifting industrial
composition or by elderly migration. Instead, a large portion of weather-related moves appear
to be the result of an increased valuation of nice weather as a consumption amenity,
probably due to broad-based rising per capita income.

JEL classification: N920, O510, R110, R120, R230
Keywords: Economic Growth, Population Density, Migration, Quality of Life

1Introduction

Over the course of the twentieth century, U.S. residents moved en masse to places with niceweather. Well known is the migration towards places with warm winters, which is often
attributed to the introduction of air conditioning (Oi, 1997). But people have also been
moving to places with cooler, less-humid summer weather, which is the opposite of what
would be expected from the introduction of air conditioning. Nor can the movement tonice weather be attributed primarily to elderly retirement, as the trend is nearly as strong
among working-age individuals. Instead, regressions of population growth on weather andother characteristics suggest that a large portion of weather-related moves have followedfrom a broad-based increase in valuation of nice weather as a consumption amenity. If so,other consumption amenities are also likely to have served as important sources of local
growth. Moreover, if increased valuations are the result of rising per capita income, then the
migration to nice weather is likely to continue.
Valuing weather’s contribution to quality-of-life has received considerable attention in
the compensating differential literature. The value of a weather characteristic can be calculated as the sum of the wages a household is willing to forego plus the price premium they arewilling to pay to live in a place with that characteristic (Rosen, 1979; Roback, 1982). Basedon public use micro-samples from the 1980 decennial census, one hundred fewer annual heating degree days are estimated to be valued (in 2002 dollars) from $5 to $40 per household;one hundred less annual cooling degree days are estimated to be valued from $2 to $218 perhousehold; one extra sunny day per year, from $19 to $33 per household; and one inch lessprecipitation, from -$58 to $34 (Blomquist, Berger, and Hoehn, 1988; Gyourko and Tracy,
1991; and Stover and Leven, 1992). More recent research finds that Italian households are
similarly willing to pay substantial sums to enjoy less precipitation and more moderate summer temperatures (Maddison and Biggano, 2003). Other recent research finds a substantial
increase in U.S. households’ valuation of weather’s contribution to quality-of-life during thelatter part of the twentieth century (Cragg and Kahn, 1999; Costa and Kahn, 2003).
There are several important limitations to the compensating differential methodology
of valuing weather. First is that the number of U.S. geographic observations is relatively
small since the necessary micro data is available only for places with a population of at

least 100,000. These observations are subject to a sharp selection bias in that places wherelarge numbers of people have not chosen to live are excluded. A second limitation of thecompensating differential methodology is the imprecision of estimated values due to the difficulty controlling for individual-specific and house-specific characteristics (Gyourko, Tracy,
and Kahn, 1999; Combes, Duranton, and Laurent, 2004; Lee, 2005). To the extent thathigher-income individuals disproportionately desire to live in high quality-of-life locations,
there will be a strong positive correlation between local consumption amenities and respondents’ unobserved characteristics. A third limitation is the identifying assumption that thesystem of localities across which attributes are being valued is at its long run steady state.
But the high persistence of population flows across these localities establishes that this isalmost certainly not the case (Greenwood et. al., 1991; Rappaport 2004a).
In contrast to the price approach of the compensating differential literature, the present
paper pursues a “quantity” approach. Partial correlations of population growth with local
weather reflect changes in the valuation of weather’s combined contributions to quality-of-lifeand productivity. Continental U.S. counties are used as the geographic unit of observation.
The large number of these—more than three thousand—allow for high statistical power.
The discrete partition of the continental United States captures an extremely wide variation
in weather. And the underlying theory explicitly takes into account that steady-state andactual population are likely to differ.
There are three main limitations to the quantity approach. First is that it can generally
capture only changes in contributions to quality-of-life and productivity. Second is that it
does not quantify the size of the changed contributions. Third is that it fails to distinguishbetween changed contributions to quality-of-life versus changed contributions to productivity.
The paper proceeds as follows: Sections 2 and 3 respectively discuss the paper’s theoretical and econometric framework. Section 4 briefly describes the data. Section 5 reports
and interprets the empirical results. A last section concludes.

22

TheoryTwo sets of theory underpin the papers empirics. The first concerns how to interpret partial
correlations between local population growth and exogenous attributes. The second considers
some specific ways in which the weather’s contribution to quality-of-life and productivity haschanged over the past century.

2.1

The Determinants of Local Population

The theoretical framework for inferring the determinants of local population follows Haurin(1980) and Rappaport (2004a, 2004b). The world is assumed to be composed of a large
number of “localities.” These are fixed geographic areas where people both live and workand across which there is at least moderate factor mobility. Localities exogenously differ withrespect to some attributes that affect local quality-of-life and local productivity. Local attributes that affect quality-of-life enter directly as arguments in individuals’ utility functions.
Those that affect productivity enter directly as arguments in firms’ profit functions. Equivalently, quality-of-life attributes shift individuals’ indifference curves over wages and prices.
Productivity attributes shift firms’ iso-profit curves over wages and other input prices.
In a long-run steady state, population density is an increasing function of local qualityof-life and local productivity. The intuition is simple. Individuals are willing to endure
greater crowdedness and the associated higher price of housing in order to directly enjoy
higher quality-of-life and to indirectly enjoy higher productivity via the higher wages it affords. Indeed, varying local population density is the primary mechanism forcing local wages
and housing prices to adjust such that utility and profits can be equated across localities.
The setup might suggest that a “level” regression of population density on exogenous
attributes can identify contributions to quality-of-life and productivity. But this is unlikely
to be so. One reason is that factor mobility is not perfect. Another is that productivity andquality-of-life also depend on endogenous attributes.
Imperfect factor mobility implies that current population density may differ substantially from steady-state population density. Even relatively small frictions to labor and capital mobility can cause population to require several decades to transition from one steady3

state to another (Rappaport, 2004a). Hence a positive partial correlation between current
population density and an exogenous attribute may reflect a past rather than a present
contribution to quality-of-life and productivity.
The additional difficulty introduced by the dependence of quality-of-life and productivity
on endogenous attributes is that such attributes are likely to be correlated with the exogenous
ones. Substantial research suggests that quality-of-life and productivity depend themselves
on population size and density. Size and density may increase quality-of-life by allowing forincreased social interaction and product variety (e.g., Glaeser, Kolko, Saiz, 2001; Fujita andThisse, 2002; Compton and Pollak, 2004). They may increase productivity via local scaleeconomies (e.g., Henderson et. al., 1995; Ciccone and Hall, 1996; Henderson, 2003). An
exogenous attribute that increased quality-of-life and productivity in the past may no longer
do so in the present. But the high population density caused by the past contribution may
cause steady-state population density to remain correlated with the attribute via a “lock-in
effect” from self-reinforcing agglomeration forces (Fujita and Mori, 1996).
Interpreting partial correlations between population growth and exogenous attributes ismore straightforward. Regardless of factor mobility, an exogenous attribute that is partiallycorrelated with long-run population growth will be partially correlated with a change in
steady-state density. Imperfect factor mobility simply implies that the change may haveoccurred substantially before the period over which population growth is being measured.
One possible cause of a change in steady-state density is a change in contribution from theexogenous attribute to quality-of-life and productivity. Another is a change in contribution
to these from an endogenous attribute that is correlated with the exogenous attribute. To
rule out the latter possibility, regressions can include controls for predetermined endogenous
attributes.

2.2

The Changing Contributions from Weather

That the weather contributes to quality-of-life and productivity is obvious. Indeed it is hardto think of any outdoor activity—whether for leisure or for work—that is not affected by theweather. But for present purposes, the relevant question is how the weather’s contribution
to quality-of-life and productivity has changed over the past century? Among many possible4

ways, four stand out. The first is that the decline of agricultural employment has decreased
the importance of weather characteristics that contribute to agricultural productivity. The
second is that air-conditioning and improved heating technology have decreased the disutility
from extreme temperatures. The third is that rising per capita income has increased therelative valuation of temperate weather. The fourth is that it is primarily the growing number
of affluent and mobile retirees who have increased their valuation of temperate weather.
The explanation based on agriculture’s declining employment is straightforward. Agricultural productivity clearly depends on numerous weather attributes such as rain and thelength of a growing season. While this dependence may have remained largely unchanged
over the course of the twentieth century, the importance of agricultural productivity to overall U.S. productivity has become much smaller. Agriculture’s share of U.S. employment fell
from approximately 40 percent in 1900 to less than 2 percent in 2000. The sector’s relative
decline effectively freed up more than a third of U.S. residents and jobs to relocate based on
considerations other than agricultural productivity. A related possibility is that relative employment declines in the minerals extraction and manufacturing industries freed up people
to move away from bad-weather places where such industries were concentrated.
The roles of air-conditioning and improved heating technology require a bit more explanation. As a matter of background, the first known air-conditioning units were installedaround 1900. Over the subsequent 40 years, AC was slowly adopted by manufacturers and a
few service businesses. However, it was not until after World War 2 that the mass adoptionof residential air-conditioning began. As late as 1960, only 13 percent of U.S. households
had any sort of AC and only 2 percent had central AC. Home heating improved over thecourse of the 20th-century first as vendor-delivered oil came to supplant coal as the primaryfuel source starting in the 1920s. In turn, utility-supplied natural gas and electricity cameto supplant oil starting in the 1940s. During the latter part of the century, there were also
considerable improvements in home insulation technologies.1
To help understand the implications of air-conditioning and improved heating, Figure
1 shows average daily high summer and winter temperatures for 45 U.S. urbanized areas.
The summer measure is a discomfort index reflecting both temperature and humidity. More
1

Tables documenting the incidence of air-conditioning and primary heating fuel across states and decades

are included in the paper’s supplemental materials.

5details on the weather variables are in the data-description section below. The solid lines in
the figure represent a possible set of indifference curves prior to AC and improved heating.
Utility is decreasing as you move to the lower right. The underlying loss function assumes
75◦ F to be the year-round ideal.2
The introduction of air-conditioning lessens the disutility from hot summer weather.
Individuals become willing to endure more of it in return for warm winter weather. Equivalently, the indifference curves stretch rightward along the top vertical axis. This causes
numerous preference reversals. For example, Duluth Minnesota’s weather without air conditioning is preferred to that of numerous cities in the South and Southwest. But with AC,
Duluth’s weather is the least preferred of the depicted cities. Similarly, numerous cities inthe bottom left of the figure reverse from having relatively desirable to relatively undesirable
weather.
Restoring spatial equilibrium requires a new vector of wages and house prices acrossplaces. In general, the more the valuation of a place’s weather has risen, the larger therequired fall in its relative wage and increase in its relative house price. Migration is themechanism that brings the new spatial equilibrium about. People will move both towards
places with hot summers and towards places with warm winters (that is, towards the upper
right of the figure). The impulse towards hot summers is intuitive: hot weather has become“less bad”. The impulse towards warm winters arises because AC increases the sensitivity ofrelative weather valuations to winter temperatures. This is reflected in the flatter indifference
curves.3 Reinforcing the faster relative growth of cities with warm winters is the strong
positive correlation between summer and winter temperatures.
Improved heating technologies cause indifference curves to shift in a way that mirrors theshift from air-conditioning. Specifically, the curves stretch downward along the left vertical
2

Specifically, the loss function is assumed to be of the form, L = a |s − s∗ |α + b |w − w∗ |β . Here s andw are respectively summer and winter temperature. The remaining elements of the equation are positive
parameters. The introduction of AC is depicted as a decrease in a. Improved heating might correspond toa decrease in b. An increased valuation of nice weather might correspond to increases in both a and b.
3
An illustrative example, in the upper middle of Figure 1, is the required faster relative growth of Riverside
compared to Bakersfield, notwithstanding that the two cities’ summer weather is virtually identical. Prior
to AC, the two cities’ weather bundles were equally valued. With AC, Riverside’s weather is preferred tothat of Bakersfield.

6

axis. As a result, people move both towards places with cold winters and towards places
with cool summers (that is, towards the lower left of the figure).
Although air-conditioning and improved heating imply migration in the opposite direction, the two technological changes in combination only partially offset each other. With
approximately equal magnitude shifts from air-conditioning and from improved heating, theAC-induced impulse toward warm winters and the heating-induced impulse towards coolsummers are indeed cancelled out. But there continues to be a combined impulse toward
cold winters and hot summers. To see this, suppose that the combined technological shocks
cause indifference curves to shift downward and rightward such that the new curves exactly
parallel the old ones. As a result of such a shift, the required compensating variation for any
given deviation from ideal weather falls. Restoring spatial equilibrium thus requires people
to move in the same direction as the shift in indifference curves.
In sharp contrast to the implied movement from air-conditioning and improved heating,the rise in income associated with broad-based technological progress creates an impulse
for people to move toward places with nicer weather. Over the course of the 20th-century,
rising total factor productivity and the implied capital accumulation increased U.S. per
capita income more than six-fold (Maddison 1995). Since nice weather is a normal good,demand for it should have risen as well. More specifically, increased consumption of goods
is associated with a decrease in marginal utility. Hence people should be willing to pay ahigher price, in terms of foregone consumption, to live in a place with nice weather. In termsof Figure 1, rising incomes cause indifference curves to shift inward: a given loss occurs
at a smaller deviation from ideal weather. Maintaining spatial equilibrium thus requires
places with nice weather to have an increasingly negative wage premium and an increasingly
positive house price premium.
Migration to nice weather places can help bring the new spatial equilibrium about
by putting downward pressure on wages and upward pressure on house prices. But risingincomes also cause other demand shifts that make the direction of migration ambiguous.
In particular, demand for housing also increases. The resulting broad-based rise in house
prices—both because technological progress may disproportionately apply to non-housing
goods and because production of housing tends to be intensive in non-reproducible land—
can actually induce movement away from nice-weather places since they already have high7relative house prices. With CES production and utility, the direction of movement depends
on nontrivial parameter restrictions. As a rule of thumb, movement will be toward niceweather if the elasticity of substitution between non-housing goods and housing is below one(Rappaport 2004b). The intuition is similar to the exact balancing of income and substitution
effects with log utility such that rising wages do not increase leisure consumption.
The final hypothesized way in which the contribution from weather to quality-of-lifeand productivity has changed is similar rising per capita income except that it applies only
to the elderly. Social Security and better retirement planning have increased the wealth ofretirees. Medical advances have increased their longevity. And many affluent individuals
are increasingly deciding to retire early. Because they do not work, retirees’ income nolonger depends on their locale’s productivity. And so upon retiring, quality-of-life suddenly
becomes a much more important determinant of where they live.
The empirical section below argues that growth regressions can distinguish, at least inpart, among these four possible changes in the weather’s contribution to quality-of-life andproductivity. Controlling for pre-determined agricultural, mineral extraction, and manufacturing characteristics of counties suggests that the movement towards nice weather does notarise primarily from a shift in industry composition. The faster relative growth of places
with cooler, less humid summers establishes that air-conditioning can not alone account forthe movement toward nice weather. And the approximately equal draw of nice weather forboth working-age and elderly individuals suggests that increased retirement has has beena relatively unimportant source of the population shift. The explanation with which theempirics are most consistent is that individuals have been steadily increasing their valuation of nice weather’s contribution to quality-of-life. Fitted growth rates suggest that air
conditioning also played a large role in the population movement.

3

Econometric Framework

A locality’s steady-state population density is assumed to depend on its productivity andquality-of-life. These, in turn, are assumed to depend on numerous time-invariant local
attributes. More specifically, the natural log of steady-state population density for locality8

i is assumed to take the functional form,∗li,t= ρt lt + x0i β t + µi,t

0≤ρ<1

(1)

The term ρ is a time-varying scalar that captures any increasing returns from current population density to quality-of-life and productivity. The k-by-1 column vector xi measures the
locality’s time-invariant attributes. These are multiplied by a time-varying k-by-1 column
vector, β t . The stochastic disturbance, µi,t , is assumed to have expectation zero and to be
uncorrelated with xi .4
Of course, quality-of-life and productivity may also depend on time-varying, endogenous
local attributes such as local government policy. To simplify the discussion that follows,
any such contributions are assumed to occur only via current population, lt . In practice,interpretations of regression coefficients need to consider the possibility that they reflect
contributions from excluded time-varying attributes.
With imperfect factor mobility, regressing current density on time-invariant attributes
is equivalent to estimating
1
li,t = 1−ρx0i β t + i,t
t




1
∗
i,t = 1−ρli,t − li,t
+ µi,t(2)

tRegression coefficients on xi thus correspond to the structural parameters, β t , magnified by
the degree of increasing returns to scale. Such estimates will be biased. The error term, i,t ,includes the difference between current and steady-state density. This difference will almost
certainly be correlated with xi .
To get some intuition on the bias, it is helpful to assume that ρt equals zero. Further∗
assume that up until t = 0, current density was at its steady state, li,t = li,−1= x0i β −1 .
∗Exactly at t = 0, steady-state density shifts to li,0
= x0i β 0 , where it remains forever after.

The difference between current and steady-state density immediately following the shift is
x0i (β −1 − β 0 ). A level regression based on (2) implemented at t = 0 would estimate β −1rather than β 0 . Population density gradually transitions to its new steady state. As it does
4

The label “steady state” might alternatively be reserved for a stronger condition characterized by substi-∗∗∗
tuting li,t
for both li,t
and li,t in (1). Also, xi is assumed to include a 1 as its first element thereby allowing

for a time-varying constant.

9

so, regressions based on (2) will give coefficients that reflect a combination of the old andnew structural parameters, (1 − αt )β −1 + αt β 0 , with α moving from 0 to 1 over time.
Reintroducing increasing returns to scale considerably complicates matters. Coefficientsfrom level regressions based on (2) should still reflect a combination of old and new parameters. But even after the structural parameters, β t , change, the corresponding estimatedcoefficients can remain constant because of increasing returns to scale. Similarly, increasesin ρt will cause an increase in the magnitude of estimated coefficients notwithstanding constant structural parameters, β t . For these reasons, regressions of population density on fixedattributes are difficult to interpret.
In contrast, regressions of the growth of population density on fixed attributes suggest more straightforward interpretations. Specifically, such coefficients should reflect thedirection in which contributions to quality-of-life and productivity have shifted over time.
The inclusion of initial density as a right-hand-side variable helps to control for increasing
returns.
Interpreting population growth regressions requires making explicit the process by which
population converges to its steady state.5 It will be assumed to do so as a function of the∗log difference between steady-state and current density, λ(li,t− li,t ), with λ0 ( · ) > 0 andλ( 0 ) = 0. Local population growth is then given by∗li,t − li,t−1 = λ( li,t−1− li,t−1 ) + ni,t + ν i,t(3)

The term ni,t captures any change in population density due to births and deaths. The term
ν i,t is a stochastic shock with expectation zero. It is helpful to assume that both ni,t and ν i,t∗, li,t−1 , and xi .
are independent of li,t−1

The dependence of λ( · ) on only the difference between steady-state and current density
implies that this difference can be written as a function of three series—past changes in
steady-state density, past births minus deaths, and past population growth shocks—alongwith the gap between steady-state and actual density at some time in the distant past:
∗
T −1
T
T
∗
∗
∗
− li,t−τli,t−1− li,t−1 = f ( {li,t−τ
−1 }τ =1 , {ni,t−τ }τ =1 , {ν i,t−τ }τ =1 , li,t−T − li,t−T )5(4)

So long as a place’s land area remains constant, the growth rate of population density equals the growthrate of population. The two types of growth are referred to interchangeably herein.

10

The function f ( · ) has a positive partial derivative with respect to each element of its firstseries of arguments, a negative partial derivative with respect to each element of its second
and third series of arguments, and a positive derivative with respect to the the last argument.
Henceforth T is assumed to be large and so this last argument will be ignored.
Each of the past changes in steady-state density can be rewritten by first differencing(1). Doing so using an approximation of the change in the product of two time-varying
variables gives∗∗
li,t−τ
− li,t−τ−1 ≈ρt−τ − ρt−τ −1 li,t−τ −1 + x0i β t−τ − β t−τ −1+ ρt−τ −1 (li,t−τ − li,t−τ −1 ) + µi,t−τ − µi,t−τ −1(5)The change in steady-state population density is approximately the change in the degree ofincreasing returns multiplied by the initial population density plus the change in the contributions from the time-invariant attributes plus the change in population density multipliedby the initial degree of increasing returns plus the change in the stochastic disturbance.
Substituting (5) into (4) and the result into (3) and then rewriting in terms of a newe · ), gives
function, λ(li,t − li,t−1e { ρt−τ − ρt−τ −1 li,t−τ −1 }T −1 , {x0 β t−τ − β t−τ −1 }T −1 ,
= λ
τ =1
i
τ =1

(6)

−1
−1
{ρt−τ −1 (li,t−τ − li,t−τ −1 )}Tτ =1, {µi,t−τ − µi,t−τ −1 }Tτ =1,
{ni,t−τ }Tτ=1 , {ν i,t−τ }Tτ=1+ ni,t + ν i,te · ) has positive partial
The first derivative properties of λ( · ) and f ( · ) imply that λ(derivatives with respect to each element of its first four series of arguments and negative
partial derivatives with respect to each element of its fifth and sixth series of arguments.
The growth regressions that follow have reduced functional form,
li,t − li,t−1 = a li,t−1 + x0i bt + εi,t(7)Comparing (7) with (6) shows that the coefficient a is an increasing function of each ele−1
ment of {(ρt−τ − ρt−τ −1 )li,t−τ −1 /li,t−1 )}Tτ =1. In other words, the coefficient on initial density

measures past changes in the degree of increasing returns to scale. Past increases in IRS
contribute positively to a; past decreases contribute negatively to it. The term li,t−τ −1 /li,t−1
11

“adjusts” for the difference between current and lagged density. It should be close to one forrecent periods. Similarly, each bkt of bt is increasing with respect to each element of the se−1
. Positive past changes in the structural coefficient β kt−τ contributeries {(β kt−τ − β kt−τ −1 )}τT=1

positively to bkt ; negative past changes contribute negatively to it. The intuition is straightforward: since population adjusts only gradually to its steady state, the partial correlation of
growth with fixed attributes reflects the change over time of how those attributes contributeto steady-state density (Rappaport, 2004a).
The dependence of (6) on the series of past changes in population might suggest also
including lagged growth terms on the right-hand-side of (7). But with the slow adjustment of
population towards its steady-state, doing so will result in the corresponding autoregressive
coefficients capturing a considerable share of the growth arising from past changes in the otherstructural coefficients. On the other hand, excluding lagged growth rates from regressions−1should simply magnify the positive correspondence between bkt and {(β kt−τ − β kt−τ −1 )}Tτ =1

since the latter is a main source of the lagged growth.6
The present change interpretation of bt differs substantially from a level interpretationthat is sometimes made in the conditional convergence empirical literature. This alternative∗interpretation assumes a linear convergence process: λ( · ) = −λ · (li,t−1 − li,t−1). The positive

scalar λ measures a constant “speed of convergence”—the rate at which l closes the log gap
to its steady state. Substituting this and (1) into (3) gives li,t − li,t−1 = −λ(1 − ρt−1 )li,t−1 +λx0i β t−1 + λµi,t + ni,t + ν i,t . The coefficient vector bt can thus be interpreted as a positive
scalar times the structural vector β t−1 .
Two important problems strongly argue that level interpretations of bt are incorrect.
From a theoretical perspective, simple models of local growth show that the speed of convergence can vary tremendously even very close to the steady state (Rappaport, 2005). Froman empirical perspective, the conditional convergence setup suggests that excluding initial
population density should result in completely different coefficient estimates since in thatcase only the change interpretation applies. But as shown below, coefficient estimates arenearly identical whether or not initial population density is included.
6

The exclusion of lagged growth does make it more difficult to interpret a to the extent that past growthis correlated with past population levels. Also, the exclusion of a control for past natural population change
allows for the possibility that regression coefficients may partly be capturing it.

12

Regressions using county observations almost surely violate the classical assumptionof independence. This is due to possible spatial components both of omitted variables
and of stochastic disturbances. Hence a generalization of the Huber-White heteroskedasticconsistent estimator is used to report standard errors that are robust to a spatial structure
among regression residuals (Conley, 1999). Let σ i,j be an element of the covariance matrix
E (εε0 ). For observation pairs between which the Euclidean distance is beyond a certain
cutoff, covariance between residuals is assumed to be zero. For observation pairs closer toeach other than the cutoff, a declining weighting function is imposed to estimate residual
covariance. Let si,j be the estimate of σ i,j . And let ei be a regression residual.
si,j = g (distancei,j ) ei ej




=1
: distancei,j = 0∈ [0, 1] : 0 < distancei,j ≤ d



 =0
: distancei,j > dg (distancei,j )g 0 (distancei,j )

(8)

(9)

≤0

Herein, the weighting on the estimated covariance between residual terms is assumed
to fall off quadratically as the distance between county centers increases to 200 kilometers.7
Thus accounting for spatial correlation approximately doubles standard errors relative to theassumption of zero covariance with homoskedastic disturbances.

4

Data Description

U.S. counties are used as the geographic unit of analysis. Doing so offers several benefits
relative to using alternative U.S. local geographies. First, counties completely partition thecontinental United States. Excluding geographic areas with low population would introduce
a source of considerable bias. Second, counties’ borders have been relatively constant acrosstime. Constant borders allow intertemporal comparisons between geographically fixed areas
7

In other words, g( · ) = 1 −distancei,j200

2. Note that the present specification reduces to the Huber-White

heteroskedastic-consistent estimator for standard errors when d equals zero; it reduces to a group-based
random effect estimator for standard errors with a non-Euclidean one-zero step specification for g( · ).

13

and can be considered exogenous relative to most data-generating processes.8
The primary dependent variable below is the annual growth rate of population densityfrom 1970 to 2000. Other regressions use the growth rates of population subgroups, house
prices, and income as their dependent variable. Summary statistics for the growth rates areincluded in Table 1. The variables are constructed from the various U.S. Census Bureau and
Bureau of Economic Analysis sources listed in the bibliography.
The weather variables are derived from data purchased from The Climate Source, Inc.
(www.climatesource.com). The Climate Source data, in turn, is based on detailed weather
observations over the period 1961 to 1990 from more than 6,000 meteorological stations
managed by the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. A peerreviewed “hybrid statistical-geographical methodology” is applied to such data to fit surfaces
over a 2 km grid of the continental United States. A county’s weather values are thenconstructed as the mean over all 4 km2 grid cells that lie within it. In the regressions,weather variables are entered with both a linear and quadratic term. The quadratic term
has had the linear sample mean subtracted prior to squaring. Doing so allows the coefficienton the linear term to measure the marginal effect of an increase in the variable from thesample mean.
January daily maximum temperature is used as the measure of winter weather. It is
the average maximum temperature for days in January; in other words, it is the averageof the warmest temperature attained on each of the 930 January days from 1961 to 1990.
The choice to use January daily maximum rather than minimum temperature reflects ana priori belief that winter daytime highs are likely to be a more important contributor toquality-of-life than winter nighttime lows. Results are extremely robust to using alternative
winter temperature measures.
July daily maximum heat index and July average daily mean relative humidity areused as the dual measures of summer weather. The latter is the mean of average daily
maximum and minimum humidity. The former is a discomfort index that combines average
daily maximum temperature with average daily mean relative humidity (Stull, 2000). The
inclusion of humidity entered independently in addition to its contribution to heat index is
8

Nevertheless, a few adjustments to county geographies are required. Details are described in Rappaportand Sachs (2003).

14

motivated by its strong marginal power to account for population growth’s sample variance.
Results are extremely robust to using alternative summer temperature measures.
All regressions also include controls for precipitation. These are made up of linear andquadratic terms for average annual precipitation and for the average number of days per
year on which there was at least 0.01 inches of precipitation. Maps depicting the distribution of each of the five weather elements across U.S. counties are included in the paper’s
supplemental materials.
Some of the regressions include a set of seven geographic controls measuring coastal
proximity and topography. Separate dummies indicate whether a county’s center is within
80 kilometers of an ocean or Great Lakes coast or within 40 kilometers of a major river.
Additional variables measure ocean and Great Lakes shoreline per unit area. And a topography variable, entered linearly and quadratically, measures the standard deviation ofaltitude across 1.25 arc minute grid cells within a county divided by total county land area.
To control for increasing returns to scale, some of the growth regressions include an
additional set of fourteen variables measuring initial population density and surrounding
total population. Initial population density is entered as a seven-part spline to allow for anonlinear relationship between initial and steady-state population density. Surrounding total
population is the initial total population in seven concentric rings emanating from a county’s
center. An innermost circle measures (the natural log of) total population of all counties withcenters within 50 km from a county’s own center. At a minimum, this innermost circle always
includes the county’s own population. A second ring measures the total population of all
counties with centers 50 to 100 km from a county’s own center. Additional rings with outercircumference radii of 150 kilometers, 200 kilometers, 300 kilometers, 400 kilometers, and500 kilometers make for a total of 7 rings. Together, these concentric population variables
capture, for instance, the “market potential” available to local firms producing goods with
nontrivial transportation costs (Krugman, 1991; Ades and Glaeser, 1999; Fujita, Krugman,
Venables, 1999; Hanson, 2001; Black and Henderson, 2002).
As discussed in the theory section, one of the explanations for the movement to niceweather is that it reflects the decline of agricultural, minerals extraction, and manufacturing
employment. A set of seventeen variables, listed in Table 2, is used to control for this. The
industry share variables are constructed from the 1970 decennial census. The remaining
15

variables are constructed from data collected for the 1969 and 1972 economic censuses anddisseminated in the U.S. Census Bureau Consolidated City and County Databook (ICPSR
Study 7736).

5

Results

Throughout much of the 20th century, local population growth in the United States has been
positively partially correlated with winter temperature and negatively partially correlatedwith summer temperature and summer humidity. Supporting results are presented andinterpreted for three sets of regressions. The first takes 1970-to-2000 population growth asits dependent variable and incrementally introduces different categories of controls. The
second set applies a base specification from the first set to several alternative dependent
variable growth rates. The third set applies a base specification to decade growth rates fromthe 1880s through the 1990s. Together the results suggest that rising incomes are likely
to have played a large role in causing the move to nice weather. They also suggest that
air-conditioning was probably important as well.

5.1

Population Growth, 1970 to 2000

Results of the 1970-to-2000 growth regressions are reported in Table 3. In Column 1, theweather variables are included without any additional controls. A positive coefficient on
January temperature statistically differs from zero at the 0.05 level. It implies that expected
population growth increases as average daily maximum temperature increases above its sample mean value of 41◦ F. The positive, statistically-significant coefficient on quadratic January
temperature implies that the higher expected population growth from warmer winter temperatures becomes larger as temperatures increase. This increasing quadratic relationship is
intuitive if the advantage of warmer winter weather is the chance to participate in many outdoor recreational activities. Both July heat index and July relative humidity have negative,
statistically-significant coefficients on their linear terms. Expected population growth falls
as summer heat index and relative humidity increase from their respective sample means of16

98◦ F and 66%.9
The signs and statistical significance of the coefficients on the winter and summer variables are extremely robust to introducing additional controls. Column 2 includes the coastal
proximity and topography variables. Coastal proximity, which helps moderate extreme temperatures, is strongly positively correlated with population growth (Rappaport and Sachs,
2003). But controlling for coastal proximity only slightly tempers the coefficient values on
the weather variables.
Column 3 additionally controls for initial density and for total surrounding population soas to capture any growth arising from increasing returns to scale. On the one hand, increasing returns may cause the partial correlation between population and a weather attribute toremain constant even after that attribute’s contribution to quality-of-life and productivity
has changed. On the other hand, changes in the degree of increasing returns may induce
positive or negative partial correlations between population growth and an attribute notwithstanding unchanged contributions to quality-of-life and productivity. Directly controlling forthe variables from which increasing returns derives should mitigate these problems. Doingso, the winter and summer coefficient magnitudes hardly change.
The close similarity of coefficients between the Column 2 and Column 3 regressions
casts strong doubt on a conditional-convergence interpretation of the Column 3 coefficients.
As discussed in the econometric section above, the regression of a variable’s growth rateon its initial level potentially underpins a level structural interpretation of the coefficientson additional controls.10 But no such interpretation is possible if the initial level of thedependent variable is excluded. Nearly identical results from including rather than excluding
initial population density and initial total population can be interpreted in two ways. One
is that the level structural parameters multiplied by the conditional convergence parameterare coincidentally identical to the change coefficients (that is, λβ t−1 = β t−1 − β t−2 ). The
9The negative partial correlation of population growth with summer temperature holds only when con-trolling for winter temperature. Otherwise, a positive coefficient on July heat index statistically differs fromzero at the 0.05 level. This positive partial correlation of growth with July heat index when no control for
winter temperature is included also holds for the specifications in the remaining columns of Table 3.
10
The initial density spline included in the Column 3 regression is a generalization of initial population
density entered linearly. The two are equivalent if the coefficients on the spline components are constrained
to be equal.

17more reasonable conclusion is that the conditional convergence specification fails.11
One of the explanations for the movement to nice weather is the historical decline ofrelative U.S. employment in the agricultural, mineral extraction, and heavy manufacturingindustries. Column 4 reports results from a regression that includes controls for the initialconcentration in each of these. The magnitude of the linear winter coefficient decreases
moderately. More substantial decreases in the magnitude of the linear summer coefficients are
partly offset by increases in the magnitude of the corresponding quadratic coefficients. And
the winter and summer coefficients’ pattern of statistical significance remains unchanged.12
It is important to note that the controls for initial industrial concentration likely absorb
a larger share of variance than is actually caused by them. Remaining coefficients would
then understate the weather’s contribution to growth. Many industries require substantial
investments that become immobile once they are made. Growing industries can more easily
respond to individuals’ shifting locational preferences since they tend to be investing at ahigh rate. As shown below, the move to nice weather began during the 1920s. Thereafter,
contracting industries—such as agriculture, mineral extraction, and manufacturing—would
become disproportionately concentrated in bad-weather places. A second reason why theindustrial concentration variables likely absorb variance attributable to weather is that they
may be correlated with excluded weather variables that are sources of growth (for example,
the number of very cold and very hot days each year).
Overall, some portion of the move to nice weather probably does reflect the changing
industrial composition of employment. But most of it probably does not.
Notwithstanding all the controls in the Column 4 regression, it is still possible thatomitted variables might account for a portion of the partial correlations with winter andsummer weather. But if so, the omitted variables are not region specific. The regression
reported in Column 5 includes one-zero dummies for 8 of the 9 Census geographic divisions.
11

A parallel criticism of structural interpretations of coefficients in cross-country growth regressions isthat they reflect “good luck” rather than good long-term fundamentals (Easterly, Kremer, Pritchett, andSummers, 1993).
12
Results are extremely similar if an expected wage growth variable is additionally included as a control.
It is constructed as initial aggregate county labor income in each of 46 industry categories multiplied by the
1970-to-2000 national wage growth of each category (using the BEA REIS dataset). An analogous measureof expected employment growth is not constructed since only 11 industry categories are available to do so.

18

Coefficient values remain close to their values absent the division dummies. Coefficient values
are similarly robust to the inclusion of dummies for each U.S. state (not shown).
Results are similarly robust to a weighted regression that considerably discounts lowpopulation counties. The variance of the error term εi,t in (7) may be larger for counties
with low population. If so, ordinary-least-squares point estimates of parameters will not be
efficient. The optimal GLS estimator involves pre-multiplying the left- and right-hand sidesof (7) by the reciprocal square root of an observation’s variance (Davidson and MacKinnon,
1993). Column 6 reports results from such a weighted regression using the same set of controls
as in Column 4. The weighting premises that εi,t is the sum of two stochastic components:
one whose variance is independent of population and one whose variance is proportional
to the reciprocal of population. It is assumed that for a county with population of one
thousand, 75% of εi,t derives from the population-dependent component.13 This implies, forexample, that for a county with one hundred residents, 97% of total variance derives fromthe population-dependent component. For a county with ten thousand residents, 23% ofvariance derives from it.
The coefficients in the weighted regression (Column 6) are quite similar to those in theunweighted one (Column 4). The main difference is that the negative coefficient on linear
summer heat index differs from zero at the 0.10 rather than the 0.05 level. But the negative
coefficient on quadratic summer temperature now differs from zero at the 0.05 level rather
than not statistically differing from zero.14
The Column 4 unweighted regression will henceforth serve as a baseline. The impliedmagnitude of the winter weather coefficients is large. An increase in January temperaturefrom one standard deviation below its sample mean to one standard deviation above its
sample mean (from 29◦ F to 54◦ F) is associated with faster growth of 1.3% per year. Miami’s
Dade County, with an average January daily maximum temperature of 76◦ F, has faster expected annual growth of 3.4% per year compared to a county with mean winter temperature.
For comparison, the mean population growth rate for U.S. counties from 1970 to 2000 was
1000
Specifically, E ε2i = σ 2 (1 + 3 · population).
i
14
Results are more fragile to a weighting that assumes εi,t arises solely from a component with variance13

proportional to the reciprocal of population. The paper’s supplemental materials include versions of Table
3 under several alternative weighting schemes.

190.9% per year with a standard deviation of 1.3%.
The implied magnitudes of the negative coefficients on summer weather in the baseline
regression are also large, though slightly less so. An increase in July heat index from one
standard deviation below its sample mean to one standard deviation above its sample mean(from 87◦ F to 109◦ F) is associated with slower growth of 0.5% per year. An increase inrelative humidity from one standard deviation below its sample mean to one standard deviation above its sample mean (from 56% to 75%) is associated with slower growth of 0.9%
per year.15 Dade County’s average July daily maximum heat index of 109◦ F and average
July daily relative humidity of 74% imply annual growth 0.7% slower than a county with thesample mean values of summer heat index and humidity. Colorado’s Summit County, home
to many ski resorts, has a mean July heat index of 76◦ F and a mean relative humidity of
55%. As a result, it has faster expected annual growth of 0.6% compared to a county withsummer weather equal to the sample mean.
In addition to the correlations with summer and winter weather, the regressions in Table
3 also find robust evidence of a negative quadratic partial correlation between population
growth and precipitation days. The implied magnitude from the Column 4 baseline regression
becomes large for places with an especially high number of rainy days. Because of thepositive linear coefficient, increasing the number of rainy days by one standard deviation (25days) above the mean (94 days) leaves expected population growth essentially unchanged.
Increasing rainy days by a second and then a third standard deviation slows growth by 0.3
percentage points and then an additional 0.6 percentage points. For Seattle’s King County,
with an average 182 rainy days per year, annual expected population growth is 1.3 percentage
points slower than a county with mean annual precipitation.
The five weather variables in Table 3—each entered linearly and quadratically—accountfor a very large share of the variance of population growth. The R-squared value from theregression with no controls is 0.272. For comparison, a regression of population growth on
dummies for each U.S. state yields an R-squared value of 0.322. Additionally including the15

The reported slower growth from a higher heat index should be interpreted as arising solely from thetemperature component. The reported slower growth from an increase in relative humidity includes theeffect of the associated rise in heat index. In other words, it holds constant (at its sample mean) only thetemperature component of heat index.

20

weather variables to the controls in the baseline Column 4 regression increases R-squaredby 7.0 percentage points. Again for comparison, the marginal R-squared value from adding
state dummies to the baseline controls is 12.4 percentage points.
Figure 2 shows the expected population growth attributable to weather as estimated by
the baseline regression. In other words, it shows the vector product of the ten coefficients
reported in Column 4 with counties’ actual linear and quadratic weather values. The resulting expected growth captures the marginal effect of weather after controlling for coastal
proximity, topography, initial density, initial surrounding population, and initial industrial
composition. Expected growth from weather is highest in southern Florida, southwestern
Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Arizona, southern California, and coastal northern
California. Expected growth from weather is lowest throughout most of New England andthe Midwest as well as in West Virginia and the Pacific Northwest.
The faster expected growth of places with cooler and less humid summers establishes
that air-conditioning can not alone account for the move to nice weather. This point is nicely
illustrated in Figure 2 by the high expected growth of California’s coastal counties. These
counties’ mild summer weather implies that their rapid growth can not be attributable toair-conditioning. Conversely, if air-conditioning were the main force driving weather-related
moves, then expected growth should be much higher throughout the deep South (which has
among the most hot and humid weather in the U.S.).
Nevertheless, the pattern of expected growth suggests that air-conditioning was indeed
important. The high expected population growth in southern Arizona and southern Florida
holds despite average daily summer heat index values exceeding 110◦ F. This would almost
certainly not be the case in the absence of air-conditioning.

5.2

Alternative Growth Rates

The movement to nice weather has not been primarily driven by any one group. Rather,growth’s positive partial correlation with winter temperature and negative partial correlations with summer heat index and summer humidity hold for a number of sub-populations.
Table 4 Column 1 repeats the results from the baseline regression. Column 2 presents
results for an analogous regression that uses firms’ reported employment growth rather than21

population growth as its dependent variable. The magnitude of the negative coefficient onlinear January temperature is moderately smaller than in the population growth regression,a difference that statistically differs from zero.16 More important for present purposes is thatthe negative, statistically-significant coefficients on linear and quadratic January temperature
imply a quantitatively-large negative partial correlation of employment growth with wintertemperature. For summer heat and summer humidity, the implied magnitudes of the negative
partial correlations are approximately equal across the two regressions.17
The more negative correlation with winter temperature of population growth than of
employment growth is consistent with the retiree explanation of the move to nice weather.
To the extent that retirees are indeed the major source of the migration, we might expectthat the partial correlations with nice weather to be stronger for the elderly (aged 65 andup) than for working age individuals (aged 25 to 54). As shown in Columns 3 and 4, this isindeed the case both for the positive correlation with winter temperature and the negative
correlation with summer heat index. The differences in coefficients between the two groups
statistically differ from zero. Thus there is definitely some support for the retiree explanation.
But as above, more important for present purposes is that the coefficients in the working-age
regression remain statistically significant and large in magnitude. Elderly migration accounts
for only part of the overall move to nice weather. Of course, it may be that elderly migration
has served as a catalyst for migration by others, for instance by increasing labor demand indestination locales. But the early timing of the move to nice weather, discussed below, casts
doubt on this latter possibility.
Another possible explanation for the move to nice weather is that it disproportionatelyreflects location choices by international immigrants rather than native-born U.S. citizens.
The regressions reported in Columns 5 and 6 do find some support for this. The positive
partial correlation with winter temperature is much stronger for immigrants than for natives.
Similarly, the implied magnitude of the negative correlation with summer heat index ismoderately larger for immigrants. Moreover, the weather variables account for a much higher
16

The statistical significance is based on a regression that has population growth minus employment

growth as its dependent variable. This regression and analogous ones for the remaining columns of Table 4
are reported in the paper’s supplemental materials.
17
Including the expected wage growth variable discussed in footnote 12, the coefficients on July humidity
no longer statistically differ from zero.

22

share of the variation of immigrant growth than of native growth. Even so, growth’s positive
correlation with winter temperature and negative correlations with heat and humidity remainstrong among native-born citizens.
Movement to nice weather caused by rising incomes suggests an analogous intratemporal
result: high income individuals may disproportionately sort into high quality-of-life locales(Rappaport 2004b). Whether such sorting would increase or decrease over time is less clear.
Data limitations force the use of education as a proxy for income. Columns 7 and 8 ofTable 4 show results from regressing the growth rates of college graduates (i.e., with abachelors degree) and non-graduates on the baseline specification. Both the positive partial
correlation with winter temperature and the negative partial correlations with summer heatand humidity hold for both groups. But the magnitude of the positive correlation withwinter temperature is larger for non-graduates. And higher R-squared values suggest thatthe weather is a relatively more important determinant of non-graduates’ location decisions.
Thus there is some evidence that the move to nice weather has been stronger for those with
low income.
The static theory of compensating differentials suggests that a quality-of-life induced
movement to nice weather should be accompanied by an increase in relative house prices anda decrease in relative wages. Hence the signs of the partial correlations between house pricegrowth and weather ought to be the same as those for population growth. And the signsof the partial correlations for wage growth ought to be the opposite of those for population
growth. In a dynamic framework, however, the relationship among population growth, house
price growth, and wage growth is ambiguous. The ability of house prices and wages to jump
discreetly but inability of population to do so causes nonmonotonic dynamics following an
increase in quality-of-life (Rappaport 2004a).
Regressions of two measures of house price growth on the baseline specification arelargely consistent with static theory. As shown in Table 5 Columns 1 and 2, the statisticallysignificant coefficients on linear January temperature and linear July heat index imply thatat the respective sample means, house price growth increases as winters become warmer anddecreases as summers become hotter. The opposite-signed quadratic coefficients imply thatthese relationships weaken as temperatures increase. But over observed sample values, thelinear coefficients dominate the quadratic ones.
23

Regressions of two measures of wage growth on the baseline specification are less consistent with compensating-differential theory. As shown in Columns 3 and 4, a positivecoefficient on linear winter temperature differs either at the 0.10 level (per worker labor
income growth) or at the 0.05 level (per capita income growth). This is the opposite of whatis needed to compensate for the increased desirability of warm winter weather. The positive correlation might reflect the second stage of a nonmonotonic extended transition. Or
it might capture sorting by high income people into warmer winter places, notwithstanding
the apparent greater draw of nice weather to non-college graduates.
In contrast to the positive correlation of wage growth with winter temperature, its
positive correlation with July humidity is consistent with compensating-differential theory.
Faster wage growth in more humid places is exactly what is required to compensate people
for these places’ decreased desirability. Moreover, the positive correlation reinforces that thedecreased discomfort from heat and humidity afforded by air-conditioning has not been the
primary driver of the move to nice weather. On the other hand, the positive correlationof wage growth with humidity might reflect that air-conditioning has decreased humidity’s
negative contribution to productivity rather than to quality-of-life.

5.3

Population Growth by Decade

The empirical results so far have been for growth rates from 1970 to 2000. But the movement
to nice weather actually began in the 1920s. Such a dating reinforces the conclusion that it
was in large part driven by the broad-based rise in incomes rather than one of the proposed
alternative explanations.
Table 6 shows results from decade-by-decade population growth regressions. The specification is the same as in Table 3 Column 3 (the baseline specification excluding the industrial
composition controls). Results are qualitatively similar if Census Division dummies are
additionally included.
From the 1880s through the 1910s, people were actually moving to places with bad
weather. During the first two decades, population growth was negatively correlated withwinter temperature. During all four decades, population growth was positively correlatedwith summer temperature and humidity. Over this same period, agriculture’s employment24

share was rapidly declining. Hence the shift away from agriculture need not imply movement
towards nice weather.
Beginning with the 1920s regression, statistically-significant positive coefficients obtainon both linear and quadratic January temperature. And statistically-significant negative
coefficients obtain on one or more of the summer heat and humidity terms. A first point isthat manufacturing’s employment share was approximately increasing through 1940 and thenapproximately constant through 1970. Since the movement towards nice weather persisted
through both of these phases, the subsequent decline in manufacturing’s employment shareseems an unlikely cause. A second point is that the movement towards nice weather far
predates the mass adoption of air-conditioning, which began in the late 1940s. AC’s spread
would thus seem to be too late to account for the population shift. Similarly, the increases inretiree longevity and financial security—also largely post World War 2 phenomena—occur
too late to explain the early movement towards nice weather.
Still another explanation for the move to nice weather is that it captures the increasingease with which people can do so. Railroads, the automobile, and the airplane have all
helped make long-distance moves much less costly. Along with rapidly improving telecommunications technologies, they have also made it much easier to stay in touch with friends
and families following long-distance moves. While such falling transportation costs almost
certainly helped to facilitate the move to nice weather, the timing of the movement suggeststhat they were unlikely to be the main cause. Railroads were a relatively mature technology
many decades before the onset of the move to nice weather. Conversely, it was probably
not until the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s that the automobile yielded significant time savings on long-distance journeys. Widely affordable air travel
arrived even later.

6

Conclusions

Throughout most of the 20th century, U.S. residents migrated to places with nice weather.
Possible explanations for this include the introduction of air-conditioning, the shift in theindustrial composition of U.S. employment, increased elderly migration, and the broadbased rise in people’s income. Regressions of 1970-to-2000 population growth on weather
25

suggest that each of these explanations played a role. The positive partial correlations of
population growth with summer heat and humidity establish that air-conditioning cannot
alone account for the migration. But the high expected growth attributable to weather inplaces characterized by extreme summer heat and humidity almost certainly would not be
the case in the absence of air-conditioning. An extensive set of controls for initial industrial
structure accounts for a portion of the weather related moves. But the draw of nice weather
remains strong nevertheless. And the move to nice weather has indeed been larger for theelderly, but only moderately so. That the movement to nice weather began in the 1920s
reaffirms that it can not be explained by some combination of air-conditioning, shifting
industrial structure, and increased elderly migration.
The inability of the alternative explanations to account for a large portion of the moveto nice weather is consistent with an increasing valuation of the weather’s contribution toquality-of-life having served as an important impetus. An increased valuation has been documented in the compensating differential literature and is theoretically predicted from the
sharp rise in people’s incomes over the course of the 20th century. With sufficient complementarity among non-housing goods, housing, and nice weather, the increased valuation of
the latter requires migration toward it.
The present set of results suggest several lines of future research. One is the extent
to which migration to nice weather has occurred or can be expected to occur in nations
and regions other than the United States. Large increases in income have been experienced
throughout the industrialized world. Many other places are currently experiencing suchincome growth or hope to do so in the near future. Of course, the degree of labor mobility inmany places is likely to be well below that of the U.S. Some initial research along this line
finds migration among Japanese prefectures over the period 1955 to 1990 to be negatively
correlated with a measure of extreme temperature (Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 1995). Similarly,
population growth from 1980 to 2000 within EU countries is indeed higher where weather
is nicer. But across EU nations, population growth is uncorrelated with weather (Cheshire
and Magrini, 2005). If European integration continues over time, the lure of better weather
may eventually pull people across national borders as well.
A second line of research is the extent to which the U.S. migration to nice weather canbe expected to continue. The introduction of air-conditioning represents a discrete shock.
26

The transition to the implied new steady-state population distribution might take several
decades. But it would eventually die out. In contrast, the U.S. population is rapidly aging.
And broad-based technological progress and the associated increase in per capita income arelikely to endure. Hence the movement to nice weather is likely to do so as well.
A third line of research is the extent to which the draw of nice weather has been paralleledby a movement to places with high levels of other consumption amenities. Coasts, mountains,lakes, and national parks offer numerous recreational opportunities. So do urban amenities
such as restaurants, museums, live performance venues, and professional sports. Other likely
draws include low pollution; low traffic; and high-quality schools, universities, and hospitals.
It may be that such quality-of-life amenities rather than targeted tax breaks and low wages
are the key to future local economic development.

27

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Rappaport, Jordan and Jeffrey Sachs (2003). “The United States as a Coastal Nation.” Journalof Economic Growth 8, 1 (March), pp. 5–46.
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29

Roback, Jennifer (1982). “Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life.” Journal of Political Economy
90, 6 (Dec.), pp. 1257–1278.
Stover, Mark Edward and Charles L. Leven (1992). “Methodological Issues in the Determinationof the Quality of Life in Urban Areas.” Urban Studies 29, 5, pp. 737–754.
Stull, Roland B. (2000). Meteorology for Scientists and Engineers, Second Edition. Pacific Grove,
CA: Brooks/Cole.
U.S. Bureau for Economic Analysis. “CA05: Personal Income by Major Source and Earnings
by Industry” [computer file]. REIS Regional Economic Information System, 1969-2000 CD-Rom(RCN-0295).
U.S. Bureau for Economic Analysis. “CA25: Full-time and Part-time Employment by Industry.”[computer file]. REIS Regional Economic Information System, 1969-2000 CD-Rom (RCN-0295).
U.S. Census Bureau (1999). “Housing: Then and Now; 50 Years of Decennial Censuses”.
www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/histcensushsg.html
U.S. Census Bureau. Decennial Census reports, 1890-1960 [investigator]. Historical, Demographic,
Economic, and Social Data: The United States, 1790–1970, ICPSR Study No. 3 [computer file].
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ICPSR Study No. 7736 [computer file]. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of
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Summary File 3/0 National

30

Table 1: Summary Statistics
Variable

Obs

Mean

Std. Dev

Min

Max

1970-to-2000 Growth Rates
Population
Employment (Civilian)Working Age Pop. (aged 25 to 54)
Elderly Population (aged 65 and up)
Native U.S. citizen
Immigrant
Per Worker Labor Income
Per Capita Income (1969 to 1999)
Median House ValueMedian House Rent

3,067
3,065
3,067
3,066
3,067
3,067
3,065
3,067
3,063
3,049

0.9
1.8
1.7
1.7
0.8
3.5
0.5
2.2
2.3
1.4

1.3
1.5
1.4
1.4
1.3
4.3
0.8
0.5
0.9
0.7

-2.4
-2.8
-2.4
-2.2
-2.5
-8.3
-15.1
-0.6
-3.7
-1.2

10.1
11.3
11.3
10.0
10.0
24.4
5.8
4.8
7.7
4.2

Population Growth Rates by Decade
1880s
1890s
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s

2,395
2,604
2,696
2,844
3,014
3,060
3,062
3,064
3,063
3,067
3,067
3,069

3.5
1.9
2.0
0.7
0.7
0.5
0.3
0.4
0.4
1.4
0.3
1.0

7.0
3.2
4.1
2.2
2.8
1.5
2.0
2.2
1.7
1.7
1.4
1.3

-13.2
-11.5
-8.8
-21.9
-8.9
-6.4
-9.3
-5.5
-11.3
-4.5
-3.9
-4.7

69.2
37.9
45.6
30.9
44.3
15.0
14.5
15.7
12.1
13.0
9.7
10.7

WeatherJanuary Daily Max. Temp. (°F)
July Daily Heat Index (°F)
July Daily Relative Humidity
Annual Precipitation
Annual Precipitation Days

3,067
3,067
3,067
3,067
3,067

41.4
98.3
65.7
38.3
94.1

12.4
11.1
9.6
14.1
24.5

10.8
75.6
23.8
3.5
13.3

76.5
131.3
82.0
118.2
198.0

All growth rates are on an annual percentage basis.

Table 2: Agriculture, Manufacturing, andMineral Extraction Control Variables
Industry Share of 1970
Total Employment (10)Agriculture
MiningPrimary Metals Manufacturing
Fabricated Metals Manufacturing
Machinery Manufacturing
Transportation Equip. Manufacturing
Other Durable Manufacturing
Textiles Manufacturing
Chemicals Manufacturing
Other Nondurable Manufacturing

Additional Agriculture Controls (3)Farming Occupation Share (1969)
Percent of Land Devoted to Farming (1969)
Agriculture Sales per Capita (1969)
Additional Manufacturing Controls (2)Manufact. Industries Payroll per Capita (1972)
Manufact. Industries Val. Added per Capita (1972)
Additional Mineral Controls (2)Mineral Industries Payroll per Capita (1972)
Mineral Industries Sales per Capita (1972)

Table 3: Population Growth and Weather(1)
Dependent Vairable →Independent Variables ↓

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

annual population growth rate, 1970 to 2000

Coast/River/Topgrphy (7)Initial Density Spline (7)Concentric Total Pop (7)Ag/Mnrl/Mnfct (17)Census Divisions (8)

no
no
no
no
no

yes
no
no
no
no

yes
yes
yes
no
no

yes
yes
yes
yes
no

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
no

Weighted Regression

no

no

no

no

no

yes

January linear
Daily Max
quadratic
Temp

0.0751(0.0073)0.0012(0.0003)

0.0663(0.0079)0.0012(0.0003)

0.0655(0.0074)0.0014(0.0003)

0.0513(0.0070)0.0013(0.0003)0.0497(0.0077)0.0016(0.0003)

0.0488(0.0070)0.0013(0.0002)

linearJuly
Daily Heat
quadratic
Index-0.0626(0.0091)-0.0002(0.0004)-0.0508(0.0102)-0.0003(0.0004)-0.0505(0.0100)
0.0004(0.0004)-0.0215(0.0088)-0.0006(0.0004)-0.0242(0.0091)-0.0002(0.0004)-0.0170(0.0088)-0.0008(0.0004)-0.0371(0.0110)0.0005(0.0004)-0.0410(0.0114)0.0006(0.0004)-0.0621(0.0124)-0.0001(0.0003)-0.0395(0.0103)-0.0003(0.0003)-0.0549(0.0106)-0.0008(0.0003)-0.0385(0.0099)-0.0003(0.0003)linearAnnualPrecipitation
quadratic

0.0216(0.0081)-0.0004(0.0002)0.0231(0.0082)-0.0004(0.0002)0.0153(0.0078)0.0001(0.0002)-0.0044(0.0066)
0.0002(0.0001)-0.0029(0.0075)0.0002(0.0001)-0.0048(0.0064)0.0002(0.0001)

linearAnnualPrecipitation
quadratic
Days

0.0053(0.0047)-0.0002(0.0001)

0.0041(0.0048)-0.0002(0.0001)

0.0021(0.0048)-0.0003(0.0001)

0.0064(0.0039)-0.0002(0.0000)

0.0061(0.0045)-0.0002(0.0000)

0.0065(0.0038)-0.0002(0.0000)

Observations

3,067

3,067

3,067

3,067

3,067

3,067

10

17

31

48

56

48

0.272

0.282

0.382

0.503

0.517

0.497

Control Variables R-sqrd

0.094

0.226

0.433

0.471

0.423

Marginal R-sqrd

0.188

0.156

0.070

0.046

0.074

July
Daily Rel
Humidity

linearquadratic# of Indep. Variables
R-sqrdTable shows results from regressing ([log(2000 Pop Density)-log(1970 Pop Density)]×100/30) on the enumerated weather
variables, control variables, and a constant. Quadratic weather variables have had their respective sample mean
subtracted. Standard errors in parentheses are robust to a spatial correlation using the procedure discussed in the maintext. Bold type signifies coefficients that statistically differ from zero at the 0.05 level. Italic type signifies coefficients thatstatistically different from zero at the 0.10 level. The column 6 regression weights observations according to
1/(1+3000/population).

Table 4: Population Subgroup Growth and Weather
(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

Total
Population
Growth

Employment
GrowthElderly
Population
GrowthWorking
Age Pop.
GrowthImmigrant
Population
GrowthNative U.S.
Citizen Pop.
Growth

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

January linear
Daily Max
quadratic
Temp

0.0513(0.0070)0.0013(0.0003)

0.0354(0.0074)0.0012(0.0003)0.0607(0.0070)0.0016(0.0003)

0.0529(0.0073)0.0012(0.0003)0.2010(0.0184)-0.0002(0.0007)0.0439(0.0071)0.0012(0.0003)

0.0376(0.0094)0.0014(0.0003)

0.0529(0.0068)0.0013(0.0002)

linearJuly
Daily Heat
quadratic
Index-0.0215(0.0088)-0.0006(0.0004)-0.0248(0.0093)-0.0007(0.0004)-0.0340(0.0097)-0.0013(0.0004)-0.0217(0.0091)-0.0002(0.0004)-0.0294(0.0247)-0.0022(0.0010)-0.0171(0.0088)-0.0005(0.0004)-0.0253(0.0123)-0.0009(0.0005)-0.0172(0.0086)-0.0008(0.0004)-0.0395(0.0103)-0.0003(0.0003)-0.0238(0.0115)-0.0008(0.0004)-0.0224(0.0102)-0.0003(0.0003)-0.0301(0.0109)-0.0004(0.0003)-0.0499(0.0309)-0.0001(0.0008)-0.0370(0.0102)-0.0003(0.0003)-0.0252(0.0131)-0.0013(0.0004)-0.0378(0.0102)0.0000(0.0003)

3,067

3,065

3,066

3,067

3,067

3,067

3,066

3,067

48

48

48

48

48

48

48

48

R-squared

0.503

0.475

0.531

0.507

0.424

0.496

0.327

0.509

Non-Weather Control
Variables R-squared

0.433

0.445

0.454

0.441

0.284

0.437

0.287

0.419

Marginal R-squared

0.070

0.030

0.077

0.066

0.141

0.059

0.040

0.090

Dependent Vairable →Independent Variables ↓Precipitation (4)Coast/River/Topography (7)Initial Density Spline* (7)Concentric Total Pop* (7)Ag/Mnrl/Mnfct (17)July
Daily Rel
Humidity

linearquadratic

Observations
Number of Indep. Variables

(7)

(8)

CollegeCollege NonGraduate
GraduatePop. Growth Pop. Growth

Table shows results from regressing annual percentage growth rates for the listed population subgroups on the column 4 specification in Table 3. Quadratic weather
variables have had their respective sample mean subtracted. Standard errors in parentheses are robust to a spatial correlation using the procedure discussed in themain text. Bold type signifies coefficients that statistically differ from zero at the 0.05 level. Italic type signifies coefficients that statistically different from zero at the0.10 level. For the column 2 regression, the initial density spline and surrounding total controls are constructed using employment rather than population. For the
regressions in columns 3 and 4, working age is defined to be from 25 to 54; elderly, 65 and above.

Table 5: Wage and House Price
Growth and Weather
(1)

(2)

MedianHouse
Value
GrowthMedianHouse Rent
Growth

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

January linear
Daily Max
quadratic
Temp

0.0298(0.0051)-0.0004(0.0002)

0.0353(0.0029)-0.0003(0.0001)

0.00680.0087(0.0036) (0.0028)
0.0002-0.0001(0.0002) (0.0001)

linearJuly
Daily Heat
quadratic
Index-0.0353-0.0125(0.0067) (0.0035)
0.00020.0007(0.0003) (0.0001)-0.0041-0.0049(0.0043) (0.0033)
0.00070.0002(0.0001) (0.0001)

0.0055(0.0070)-0.0002(0.0002)0.0008(0.0045)-0.0001(0.0001)

0.0149(0.0053)0.0007(0.0002)0.0289(0.0039)0.0001(0.0001)

3,063

3,049

3,065

3,067

48

48

48

48

R-squared

0.404

0.533

0.322

0.386

Non-Weather Control
Variables R-squared

0.287

0.287

0.369

0.362

Marginal R-squared

0.117

0.247

-0.0480.024

Dependent Vairable →Independent Variables ↓Precipitation (4)Coast/River/Topography (7)Initial Density Spline (7)Concentric Total Pop (7)Ag/Mnrl/Mnfct (17)July
Daily Rel
Humidity

linearquadratic

Observations
Number of Indep. Variables

(3)

(4)

Per Worker
Per Capita
Labor
IncomeIncomeGrowthGrowth

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

Table shows results from regressing annual percentage growth rates for the listed
wage and house price measures on the column 4 specification in Table 3. Quadratic
weather variables have had their respective sample mean subtracted. Standard errors
in parentheses are robust to a spatial correlation using the procedure discussed in themain text. Bold type signifies coefficients that statistically differ from zero at the 0.05
level. Italic type signifies coefficients that statistically different from zero at the 0.10level. For the column 3 regression, the initial density spline and surrounding total
controls are constructed using employment rather than population.

Table 6: Population Growth and Weather by Decade
(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

Δlog(PopDensity)→
Indpndnt Variables ↓

1880
–1890

1890
–1900

1900
–1910

1910
–1920

1920
–1930

1930
–1940

1940
–1950

1950
–1960

1960
–1970

1970
–1980

1980
–1990

1990
–2000

Precipitation
Coast/River/Topography
Initial Density Spline
Concentric Total Pop

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

yes
yes
yes
yes

0.0515(0.0091)0.0014(0.0004)

0.0748(0.0100)
0.0017(0.0003)

0.0682(0.0110)0.0036(0.0005)

0.0357(0.0081)0.0020(0.0004)

0.0779(0.0092)0.0015(0.0004)

0.0579(0.0078)0.0021(0.0003)

0.0534(0.0078)0.0004(0.0003)-0.0168-0.0703(0.0214) (0.0116)-0.0027-0.0001(0.0009) (0.0005)-0.0590(0.0135)-0.0026(0.0005)-0.0531(0.0135)-0.0026(0.0005)-0.0447-0.0561-0.0520-0.0410(0.0104) (0.0125) (0.0109) (0.0106)-0.00030.00050.00000.0010(0.0005) (0.0005) (0.0004) (0.0004)

0.04740.00820.0158-0.0313(0.0213) (0.0256) (0.0133) (0.0146)
0.0002-0.00310.0009-0.0001(0.0007) (0.0010) (0.0004) (0.0005)-0.0908(0.0167)-0.0015(0.0006)-0.0833(0.0142)-0.0009(0.0005)

January linear
Daily Max
quadratic
Temp-0.2061-0.0788(0.0387) (0.0200)-0.00200.0042(0.0013) (0.0010)-0.0322(0.0211)-0.0001(0.0008)-0.0056
0.0698(0.0158) (0.0179)
0.00010.0029(0.0007) (0.0008)

linearJuly
Daily Max
Heat Index quadratic

0.2756(0.0526)-0.0075(0.0018)

0.0593(0.0231)-0.0020(0.0010)0.1299(0.0274)-0.0034(0.0011)0.0431(0.0209)-0.0018(0.0007)0.1301(0.0477)-0.0071(0.0013)0.07500.0663(0.0289) (0.0331)
0.0007-0.0022(0.0008) (0.0010)

July
Daily Rel
Humidity

linearquadratic

Observations-0.0781-0.0666-0.0391(0.0155) (0.0131) (0.0128)-0.0004-0.00030.0002(0.0004) (0.0004) (0.0004)

2,395

2,604

2,696

2,844

3,014

3,060

3,062

3,064

3,063

3,067

3,067

31

31

31

31

31

31

31

31

31

31

31

31

R-squared

0.735

0.406

0.591

0.122

0.325

0.192

0.368

0.411

0.316

0.311

0.399

0.317

Non-Weather Control
Variables R-squared

0.664

0.294

0.537

0.104

0.208

0.108

0.283

0.335

0.265

0.183

0.260

0.190

Marginal R-squared

0.071

0.112

0.054

0.018

0.118

0.084

0.085

0.076

0.051

0.128

0.138

0.127

Independent Variables

3,069

Table shows results from regressing annual percentage population growth rates for the listed decade on the column 3 specification in Table 3. Quadratic weather variables have had theirrespective sample mean subtracted. Standard errors in parentheses are robust to a spatial correlation using the procedure discussed in the main text. Bold type signifies coefficients thatstatistically differ from zero at the 0.05 level. Italic type signifies coefficients that statistically different from zero at the 0.10 level.

Figure 1: Iso-Utility over Weather

Tampa Orlando

70
SDiegoLAnglsRiverside

SBrbraJanuary Daily Max Temp

60

SJose
SFrncisco

50
PrtlandOR
SeattleDenverCOSprings
NYC

30

Bangor20

NOrleans
Mobile Austin
LVegasJacksonMS
Bkrsfld
DallasBirmingham
Atlanta
LttlRock
AlbqrqMemphisNashville Tulsa

WashDC
Wichita
PhldlphSLouis
KanCity
Cincinnati
Indnpls40
BostonCleveland
Buffalo

Omaha
ChicagoDesMoines

without ACwith AC

Mnnpls
Duluth80

Phoenix

90

100

110

July Daily Max Heat Index

120

Figure 2: Expected Population Growth from Weather, (1970-2000)
Fitted annual pop. growth rate, controlling for coast, topography, initial density, concentric pop., and industry-1.5% - -0.5%-0.5% - 0%
0% - 0.5%
0.5% - 1.0%
1.0% - 2.8%

Figure 2: Expected Population Growth from Weather, (1970-2000)
Fitted annual pop. growth rate, controlling for coast, topography, initial density, concentric pop., and industry-1.5% - -0.5%

0.5% - 0.75%-0.5% - -0.25%

0.75% - 1.0%

-0.25% - 0%

1.0% - 1.25%

0%- 0.25%

1.25% - 1.5%

0.25% - 0.5%

1.5% - 2.8%