Closer inspection reveals that the author's believe this has to do with biases in reporting life satisfaction rather than authentic comparisons of interpersonal wellbeing.
We find robust evidence that day-to-day weather variation impacts life satisfaction by a similar magnitude to acquiring a mild disability. Utilizing two sources of variation in the cognitive complexity of satisfaction questions, we present evidence that weather bias arises because of the cognitive challenge of reporting life satisfaction. Consistent with past studies, we detect a relationship between long-term climate and life satisfaction without individual fixed effects. This relationship is not robust to individual fixed effects, suggesting climate does not directly influence life satisfaction.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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