IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v17y2010i6p512-520.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of weather on consumer spending

Author

Listed:
  • Murray, Kyle B.
  • Di Muro, Fabrizio
  • Finn, Adam
  • Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter

Abstract

There has been a great deal of anecdotal evidence to suggest that weather affects consumer decision making. In this paper, we provide empirical evidence to explain how the weather affects consumer spending and we detail the psychological mechanism that underlies this phenomenon. Specifically, we propose that the effect of weather – and, in particular, sunlight – on consumer spending is mediated by negative affect. That is, as exposure to sunlight increases, negative affect decreases and consumer spending tends to increase. We find strong support for this prediction across a series of three mixed methods studies in both the lab and the field.

Suggested Citation

  • Murray, Kyle B. & Di Muro, Fabrizio & Finn, Adam & Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter, 2010. "The effect of weather on consumer spending," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 512-520.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:17:y:2010:i:6:p:512-520
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.08.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698910000822
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.08.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cao, Melanie & Wei, Jason, 2005. "Stock market returns: A note on temperature anomaly," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1559-1573, June.
    2. David Hirshleifer & Tyler Shumway, 2003. "Good Day Sunshine: Stock Returns and the Weather," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1009-1032, June.
    3. William N. Goetzmann & Ning Zhu, 2005. "Rain or Shine: Where is the Weather Effect?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(5), pages 559-578, November.
    4. Mark J. Kamstra & Lisa A. Kramer & Maurice D. Levi, 2003. "Winter Blues: A SAD Stock Market Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 324-343, March.
    5. Summers, Teresa A. & Hebert, Paulette R., 2001. "Shedding some light on store atmospherics: influence of illumination on consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 145-150, November.
    6. Saunders, Edward M, Jr, 1993. "Stock Prices and Wall Street Weather," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1337-1345, December.
    7. Gardner, Meryl Paula, 1985. "Mood States and Consumer Behavior: A Critical Review," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(3), pages 281-300, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lepori, Gabriele M., 2016. "Air pollution and stock returns: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 25-42.
    2. Nicholas Apergis & Alexandros Gabrielsen & Lee Smales, 2016. "(Unusual) weather and stock returns—I am not in the mood for mood: further evidence from international markets," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 30(1), pages 63-94, February.
    3. Kim, Jae H., 2017. "Stock returns and investors' mood: Good day sunshine or spurious correlation?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 94-103.
    4. Jochen M. Schmittmann & Jenny Pirschel & Steffen Meyer & Andreas Hackethal, 2015. "The Impact of Weather on German Retail Investors," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1143-1183.
    5. Renatas Kizys & Wael Rouatbi & Zaghum Umar & Adam Zaremba, 2024. "Air temperature and sovereign bond returns," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(2), pages 179-209, May.
    6. Yoon, Seong-Min & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2009. "Weather effects on returns: Evidence from the Korean stock market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(5), pages 682-690.
    7. Christos Floros, 2011. "On the relationship between weather and stock market returns," Studies in Economics and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(1), pages 5-13, March.
    8. Nils Muhlack & Christian Soost & Christian Johannes Henrich, 2022. "Does Weather Still Affect The Stock Market?," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 1-35, March.
    9. Makridis, Christos A. & Schloetzer, Jason D., 2023. "Extreme local temperatures lower expressed sentiment about U.S. economic conditions with implications for the stock returns of local firms," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    10. Kaplanski, Guy & Levy, Haim, 2012. "Real estate prices: An international study of seasonality's sentiment effect," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 123-146.
    11. Kaustia, Markku & Rantapuska, Elias, 2016. "Does mood affect trading behavior?," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-26.
    12. Symeonidis, Lazaros & Daskalakis, George & Markellos, Raphael N., 2010. "Does the weather affect stock market volatility?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 214-223, December.
    13. Jacobsen, Ben & Marquering, Wessel, 2008. "Is it the weather?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 526-540, April.
    14. Apergis, Nicholas & Gupta, Rangan, 2017. "Can (unusual) weather conditions in New York predict South African stock returns?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 377-386.
    15. Wu, Qinqin & Chou, Robin K. & Lu, Jing, 2020. "How does air pollution-induced fund-manager mood affect stock markets in China?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    16. Pedersen, Michael, 2019. "Anomalies in macroeconomic prediction errors–evidence from Chilean private forecasters," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1100-1107.
    17. Chatterjee, Sucharita & Ghosh, Dipak, 2021. "Impact of Global Warming on SENSEX fluctuations — A study based on Multifractal detrended cross correlation analysis between the temperature anomalies and the SENSEX fluctuations," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 571(C).
    18. Dimitrios Kourtidis & Željko Šević & Prodromos Chatzoglou, 2016. "Mood and stock returns: evidence from Greece," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(2), pages 242-258, May.
    19. Andrew Worthington, 2009. "An Empirical Note on Weather Effects in the Australian Stock Market," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 28(2), pages 148-154, June.
    20. Muhammad Fayyaz Sheikh & Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah & Shahid Mahmood, 2017. "Weather Effects on Stock Returns and Volatility in South Asian Markets," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 24(2), pages 75-107, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:17:y:2010:i:6:p:512-520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.