Extreme Weather in Europe: Determinants and Economic Impact

Abstract

This paper investigates the linkage between deteriorating extreme weather conditions and anthropogenic GHG emissions and their economic impact on 40 European countries. The analysis employs the European Extreme Events Climate Index (E3CI) and its seven subcomponents, i.e., extreme maximum and minimum temperatures, wind speed, precipitation, droughts, wildfires, and hail. Using an innovative panel regression-based trend-cycle decomposition approach, we find support for the contribution of human-made GHG emissions to the deterioration of underlying extreme weather conditions and their highly nonlinear pattern. We then conduct a Growth-at-Risk analysis within a quantile panel regression framework to assess the economic implications of our findings. We show that deteriorating extreme weather conditions, as measured by the E3CI index, negatively impact the entire GDP growth rate distribution. Yet the impact on the downside risk to growth is much more substantial than the upside risk. This result holds for various E3CI components, such as rising extreme maximum temperature, wind speed, drought, and wildfires.

Keywords: climate change, extreme weather events, global warming, GHG emissions, trend-cycle decomposition, Growth-at-Risk, panel quantile regressions, Europe

JEL Classification: C21, C23, Q51, Q54