(A)symmetry effects of climate changes on economic growth: a panel data analysis

This paper examines the (a)symmetry effects of climate changes on economic growth in 179 countries using panel data over the period 1990–2020. The findings of the linear ARDL model reveal that average changes in most of the climate indicators have detrimental effects on economic growth, whereas mean sea level pressure contributes positively to economic growth during the examined period. Similarly, the influence of extreme values of climatic indicators in the form of minimum temperature, maximum precipitation, and natural disasters dummy used for the flood, drought, storm, and sea-level rise on economic growth is detrimental. Yet, the findings reveal that minimum precipitation significantly enhances economic growth. We also show that both positive and negative mean deviations of temperature and precipitation cause significant reductions in economic growth. Finally, asymmetry effects were also found while investigating the effects of climate change on the economic growth of 6 continents and three regions of 3 major continents. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.