The price of climate: French consumer preferences reveal spatial and individual inequalities.

Jean Cavailhès (1) , Daniel Joly (2) , Hervé Cardot (3) , Mohamed Hilal (1) , Thierry Brossard (4) , Pierre Wavresky (1)

1 CESAER - Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales Appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux
2 Paysage & Cadre de vie
3 LSP - Laboratoire de Statistique et Probabilités
4 ThéMA - Théoriser et modéliser pour aménager (UMR 6049)

We use the hedonic price method to study consumer preferences for climate (temperature, very hot or cold days, and rainfall) in France, a temperate country with varied climates. Data are for (i) individual attributes and prices of houses and workers and (ii) climate attributes interpolated from weather stations. We show that French households value warmer temperatures while very hot days are a nuisance. Such climatic amenities are attributes of consumers' utility function; nevertheless, global warming assessments by economists, such as the Stern Review Report (2006), ignore these climatic preferences. The social welfare assessment is changed when the direct consumption of climate is taken into account: from the estimated hedonic prices, we calculate that GDP rises by about 1% for a 1°C rise in temperature. Moreover, heterogeneity of housing and households is a source of major differences in the individual effects of climatic warming.

Mots clés: climate change; French consumers

Domaines: Géographie

Jean Cavailhès, Daniel Joly, Hervé Cardot, Mohamed Hilal, Thierry Brossard, et al.. The price of climate: French consumer preferences reveal spatial and individual inequalities.. Hoornweg, Daniel; Freire, Mila; Lee, Marcus J.; Bhada-Tata, Perinaz; Yuen, Belinda. Cities and climate change : responding to an urgent agenda. Volume 2, The Worldbank, pp.649-669, 2012, Urban development series. ⟨hal-00942579⟩