Date of Award
8-1-2017
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Economics
First Advisor
Gilbert, Scott
Abstract
My effort in doing this research and analyses, was to determine if there a relationship between climate change and economic performance. The variables that were included in this paper were the temperature, precipitation, and average output. The subject of this analysis is the sum of eleven North American countries. A panel was also created with the data and was analyzed in a similar way as the combined North American economy. This potential relationship was examined from two perspectives. The first was the use of percentage change in output, temperature, and precipitation as the dependent and independent variables. The other used the log values of the average output as the dependent variable, while temperature and precipitation were used as the independent variables. A variation of the equation that used the log values of average output included the years as an independent variable, to allow for an expression of trend. The results from both regressions that utilized percentage change and time showed no significant correlation between the independent and dependent variables. Without the inclusion of time, the equations that used log values did show a significant result, but this result may lack credibility.
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